In between the time I ordered this coffee and wrote this Onyx actually rebranded this coffee as Southern Weather, (and for a good principle reason that furthers my respect for Onyx), but no matter what you call it, this one has to go up there with those classic blends that could easily serve as an only coffee. Like my love for Counter Culture's Hologram, this one is very balanced, easy to drink, but still interesting in enough to please the discerning palette. This coffee really has it all, a bit of chocolate and nutty sweetness, with some mild acidity to add complexity and fruit notes. Onyx provides tons of useful information on how the developed this blend as well as how they recommend brewing it here, so I won't reinvent the wheel, and I'll just get into what I found.
Like the Ethiopia Hambela, this coffee needed a coarser grind, though not quite as coarse as the unique Ethiopian coffee, and benefited from pulsing the water on the brew bed to keep it moving. I followed Onyx' brew method for pourover brewing with the Hario V60 with good results. The coffee is just as described, easy to drink, sweet, balanced, and just plain good.
5 ounce slowsetta attempt.
I enjoyed this coffee as espresso even more, finding that it worked equally well in milk drinks, as just a good all around espresso. Onyx recommends 19 grams in to 40 grams out in 25 seconds, but I'm not entirely sure what basket they used, since 18 grams filled an 18 gram VST basket pretty well. With the 18 gram dose, I was pulling shots to 38-42 grams out in 25 - 27 seconds and the results were as described, delicious. Even in 8 ounce lattes the coffee held up well with lost of milk chocolate and sweet nutty undertones.
Southern Weather is a very reasonable $15 for a 12 ounce bag, available year round, which is a good thing, because this could easily be a good go to staple blend.