As two aspiring coffee nerds, we were stoked to learn one of our favorite holiday traditions was getting more caffeinated. So the minute we heard about the coffee advent calendar from Onyx Coffee Roasters, we added it to our cart and purchased it immediately!
We’ve been dreaming (scheming) of visiting Onyx (and Fayetteville, Arkansas, more generally) for years. This at-home coffee adventure would have to do in the meantime.
And let’s just say: The adventure was a success. The calendar is one of our top picks for coffee lover gifts this year. And it was core to us figuring out how to make great Onyx coffee at home.
In our Onyx Coffee Advent Calendar review, you’ll find a detailed run down of our experience. This is not a paid review, but we’d like to invite the Onyx Coffee team to reach out to us to collaborate if they’d like. ;-)
What’s new for 2025
Onyx bumped the price slightly to $190, and this year’s calendar includes a custom set of Bicycle playing cards — a fun collectible touch for those who love design and detail. Onyx hasn’t revealed all the surprises yet, but early buyers suspect a few hidden extras might be tucked inside.
Unboxing
We were so excited to receive our goodies in the mail! It arrived promptly and with enough time to get started on December 1 (FWIW, the company says to order by November 16, 2025, if you’d like to get one for this year. More details on their website).
Given Onyx’s branding, we didn’t expect to be hit over the head with a lot of festive spirit, but we thought the skull logo looked pretty darn cute with its Santa hat.
“Never settle for good enough!”
Indeed, we were excited to crack open our first baggie of coffee and get started.
What’s included
The multi-fold box featured art and information about coffee production, brewing, water-to-coffee ratios, the coffee belt, and roasting, and it felt sturdy and special. The packaging absolutely made the experience all the more fun.
We loved the gold foil details and the pops of red. And I’m always down for a casual coffee chemistry lesson. ;-)
Twenty-four individual pouches containing 2 ounces of whole bean coffee line the box — they were batched into six groups of four — and offered a variety of roast types and origins.
The pros of the Onyx coffee advent calendar
Sheer variety
Trying such a wide swath of coffee in a short amount of time was a blast.
From natural to washed to honey processed, from Ethiopia to Colombia and beyond, the menu is extensive. We looked forward to brewing our favorites (we’re suckers for Natural Processed coffees, especially from East Africa), but since we can get into “coffee ruts,” I appreciated that the experience helped us revisit certain coffee destinations, learn some new ones, and even taste some new flavor profiles.
I loved supporting the development of my own coffee knowledge and palette by having the chance to try so many types of beans in quick succession. One of the big value props of such an experience is that it would be supremely difficult to try that many coffees at home in any other way.
Sufficient amount of coffee
We grind about 40 grams a day with our Baratza Encore — enough for two cups of coffee in our favorite double walled glass mugs. At two ounces of whole beans provided per day (~60 grams), the Onyx Coffee Advent Calendar allowed both David and I to have a cup of coffee and have some leftover to spare.
We were happy to have the extra beans so we could enjoy the coffees again.
The price
We also tested out the Cometeer Coffee Advent Calendar, which costs $99 for 24 single servings of coffee (see our Cometeer Advent Calendar full review here). That makes the $189 price point of the Onyx version pretty stomachable compared to other similar premium products on the market.
The Onyx Advent Calendar price point is on par with the KaffeBox (which specializes in Nordic roasters), but heftier than La Cabra’s ($88). To be fair, though, La Cabra coffee advent calendar is only eight different kinds of coffee that you can brew 3x each.
If you’re on the hunt for high-quality gifts for coffee snobs, you’ve found a great option.
It’s delivered whole bean
We appreciated the option to grind our beans each morning, allowing us to tailor the grind size to our preferred brewing method. For instance, a coarser grind is best for French press, while a finer grind is better for AeroPress.
This ensured optimal flavor extraction and freshness, as ground coffee starts losing its flavor within a few days. This meant we could experience the full flavor profile of the coffee, including its acidity and fruity notes.
And, we were able to keep our typical morning coffee brewing ritual in tact while still enjoying a lot of different coffees.
Tip: The coffees are best suited for filter or pour-over methods, though adventurous espresso drinkers can still experiment. Each 2oz pouch yields about 24oz of brewed coffee, perfect for sharing.
» Learn more: Coffee beans vs. ground and why it matters
The cons of the Onyx coffee advent calendar
One roaster
We’ve come to value not just a variety of coffee beans, origins, and roast styles, but also the chance to try multiple different roasters, too.
While Onyx is excellent — and has absolutely earned its place as one of the most popular coffee roasters in the country — it’s still just a single roastery. So if you enjoy getting to know about different roasteries (like our Trade subscription affords us), you might find the lone roastery a little boring.
Other coffee advent calendars capitalize on both a variety of coffees and roasters.
Hard to remember what each tasted like
If you know us, you know that David and I are suckers for consuming just about anything as a “flight.” We love the chance to try multiple versions of the same things side-by-side to better understand subtle differences in taste, texture, etc.
This goes for anything — wine, bacon, waffles, root beer — you name it, we’ve probably tried to consume it in “flight” form. We’ve had a couple coffee flights over the years, such as a latte flight in Michigan, and a flight of a single type of coffee brewed multiple ways in Berlin.
We also enjoy coffee cupping, which allows you to sample a variety of beans brewed identically to better taste their differences.
And that’s something we found disappointing looking back at our Onyx Coffee Advent Calendar experience. We couldn’t really… remember…? what we liked and disliked about each coffee (maybe we should’ve written ongoing flavor notes!).
This is probably more on us and our preferences than a true con. But if you’re considering investing the $200 into the product, make sure that this won’t prove to be a bummer for you, too.
Tip: Onyx runs a community forum each December where participants discuss each day’s coffee and share tasting notes. It’s a fun way to learn from other coffee lovers (and a great solution if, like us, you forget to take notes day to day!).
No Christmas gimmicks
This could be a pro or a con depending on your or your gift recipients’ preferences. Other coffee advent calendars might stack their menu with special holiday-themed flavored beans to make it feel more festive.
For instance, the Door County Coffee Advent Calendar includes brews called “Jingle Bell Java” and “White Christmas.”
You won’t find any of that here.
» Learn more: 5 Christmas gifts for coffee drinkers in 2025
The price (it’s a con, too!)
This is definitely a luxury, splash-out product for most people, and while we loved the heck out of it, we’d be remiss to not do some back-of-the-napkin math about the costs incurred.
For $190, you get 24 days of coffee. That means you’re paying about (190/24) or $7.88 per day for the privilege if you make the full 2 ounces — or roughly $3.94 per cup.
As mentioned in the “pros” section, with 2 ounces of beans, David and I were both able to have a full cup of coffee — with enough for 1 extra cup to spare — each day. So that’s roughly (24*3), or 72, cups of coffee for the price. That comes to the much more tolerable-seeming cost of (190/72) or $2.63 per cup of coffee.
That’s a bit higher than even the cost of our Trade coffee subscription, which roughly runs us $1.44 per cup. See our full review of Trade coffee here.
This isn’t crazy-expensive if you typically grab a to-go cup of coffee from a cafe regularly. But compared to most of calculations about the costs of making coffee at home — even versus getting it at a coffee shop — it is pricy.
Is the Onyx Coffee Advent Calendar worth it?
If you’re a coffee enthusiast seeking a premium advent calendar with diverse, high-quality beans, stylish packaging, and a thorough (yet high level) introduction to the kinds of coffee that coffee nerds appreciate, Onyx Coffee’s curated offering is a worthwhile (and fun!) investment.
To make the most of your experience, stock your coffee bar with quality brewing equipment, and use a tasting journal to track your likes and dislikes as you go.
How to brew great Onyx Coffee at home
Here are our go-to tools for making sure you’re maximizing your coffee advent calendar this year.
- Excellent whole bean coffee beans. See above ^^, or check out any of our favorite coffees to drink black.
- A precise scale, like the Hario Pour-Over Scale. This measures the weight of the beans before you grind and later helps you track the amount of water poured into your brew system. For an upgrade option, consider Fellow’s sleek digital coffee scale.
- A burr grinder. These vary significantly in quality. For us, it mattered to have more precision grinding so that we could use the same grinder for, say, French Press (coarser grind size) to AeroPress (finer grind size). That’s why we opted for the Baratza Encore. Here’s our full Baratza Encore review. You can also consider a hand grinder if you want to kick it more manually/old school. For that, we recommend the Timemore Chestnut C2 or the 1Zpresso JX (premium).
- A trusty kettle. An electric gooseneck kettle is preferred to other types of kettles, as the electric allows you to control temps, and the gooseneck design allows you to better control water flow rates. We upgraded our Bonavita Gooseneck Electric Kettle recently to the Fellow Stagg Kettle. We jumped on the opportunity to try a new brand, but we were honestly really happy with the Bonavita (here’s our in-depth review of the Fellow Stagg Kettle). A solid budget option is from COSORI for less than $70.
- A coffee maker. We make pour over with a Kalita Wave everyday (it is easier than it sounds). You can choose a Chemex, a French Press, a different pour over system, heck — even a traditional coffee maker (we love our Bonavita 8C for when we have company, though it might not make sense for the volume of coffee provided with the coffee advent calendar).
- Filters: Depending on your brewer of choice, you may need Kalita Wave Filters, Chemex Filters, or Aeropress Filters. We generally recommend sticking with name brand versions of your filters to match your brewer of choice, but you can find tons of knock offs on Amazon or around town, too. Consider more eco-friendly, stainless steel options like this reusable Aeropress filter for a green(er) twist.
Best budget gear to pair with an advent calendar
If you’re gifting an advent calendar filled with premium coffee beans or filter-roast surprises, having the right gear ensures each pour feels like a holiday treat.
Below we highlight a set of budget-friendly, entry-level coffee tools that deliver surprisingly solid results — a smooth brew without breaking the bank.
- Hario V60 + filters ($20)
- COSORI gooseneck kettle ($70)
- OXO burr grinder ($90)
- Maetri House coffee scale ($30)
Other coffee advent calendars to consider
There are multiple price points — and levels of quality — for coffee advent calendars, allowing lots of folks to add a little extra excitement to their mornings with a countdown of deliciousness. Here are some coffee advent calendar options we’ve found so far.
For coffee geeks:
- Cometeer | $$$ | pods
- Roasters Pack | $$$ | whole bean (From Canada)
- KaffeBox | $$$ | whole bean (From Scandinavia)
- Brandywine | $$ | whole bean (12 nights only)
- Neon Coffee Roasters | $$$ | whole bean
- Pirates of Coffee | $$ | whole bean
- 19Grams | $S | whole bean
For the general coffee enthusiast:
- Door County Christmas Coffee Advent Calendar | $ | ground
- Keurig Christmas Cheer Calendar | $ | capsules (You can also find at Kohls)
- Nespresso-Compatible Advent Calendar | $ | pods
- The Brew Company (can also be found on Etsy) | $$ | ground
Onyx Coffee advent calendar review, recapped
As two coffee enthusiasts, we were thrilled to discover the Onyx Coffee Advent Calendar. We couldn’t wait to dive into 24 days of delicious coffee.
The packaging was festive and informative, and we loved the variety of beans from different origins and roast levels. While the coffee was excellent, we missed having the opportunity to try beans from multiple roasters. We also found it difficult to remember the nuances of each coffee, as we prefer to taste multiple coffees side-by-side.
While the price tag is high, it’s a worthwhile investment for coffee lovers who appreciate quality and variety.
Want to brew the perfect cup with your advent calendar? Here’s a list of the coffee gear we swear by so you can maximize the experience:
