keaton violet

Kenya Karatina AA - Tonx

So far, 2012 is shaping up to be a pretty great year for coffee in my kitchen. My second bag of the year is the latest offering from Tonx.

Wondering what the hell a “Tonx” is? Tonx is a coffee roasting company made up of two dudes in Los Angeles that believe (rightly so, I think) everyone’s taste buds deserve freshly roasted coffee. They believe this so much that they will do everything they can to help you get said delicious coffee delivered to your doorstep as hassle free as possible. I’ll say more about them later, but let me tell you about this delicious Karatina first. 

Everything you think you know about Kenyas is true about this Karatina. It’s juicy, bright and makes you want to dance. When I say it’s bright I don’t mean it’s a sour explosion of overripe fruit, like some Kenyas you’ve had. It’s more like a brightness that starts small and wells up in your mouth and sits on your tongue like fresh orange juice. Once again, my Chemex found a new best friend. This gem of a coffee was tasting like a spicy orange liquor when hot, and cooled to the tune of a wonderful peach cobbler. I was often tempted to drop a scoop of vanilla ice cream in my cup to complete the dessert-like experience. I will also say I had some great results with it in my v60. This is the kind of coffee that wants to be brewed at all hours of the day and goes best with a sunset and thoughtful contemplation.

Now for more about this awesome company. Tonx is Nik Bauman and Tony Konecny. Both guys are accomplished in food and coffee so you can trust them. They work hard to back up the claim that they really want you to drink good coffee and it shows. This means You can email them, call them, or send them a letter and they’ll respond. This also means they ship out your coffee within 24 hours of it being roasted and send it priority so it gets to you super fresh. If you haven’t yet left this silly blog to sign up for their awesome subscription, which gets you an awesome bag of coffee every two weeks, I’ll go on. Something that their coffee and business model has taught me is to just chill out. You don’t have to fret about whether you are drinking the coolest current single origin or waste a lot of time dialing that coffee in to your preferred method. I’ve had five coffees from them in the last two months and they’ve all been tasty in all the methods I can think of.  Tonx is like rehab. Relax and enjoy the coffee. 

More about Tonx here. Sign up for their subscription service here.