International Student Discovers Passion for Coffee Through Internship With Onyx

Konoka Hattori

International student Konoka Hattori discovered her love of coffee when she volunteered at a coffee event as a high schooler in her native country of Japan. But she didn’t discover she wanted to center her career around coffee until she started an internship with Onyx Coffee Lab, the world-renowned coffee roaster based in Fayetteville.

Hattori, an international studies and political science major who is also minoring in sustainability, is currently working an internship with Onyx, where she works with coffee farmers, producers and importers to evaluate their coffee and advise them on ways to improve its quality.

Her work at Onyx has bridged the gap between two passions in her life: a desire to help people in developing countries and a love for coffee she discovered after volunteering to brew coffee for a Fair-Trade Coffee Day in her hometown of Nagoya, Japan.

“I’d try the coffee before serving it to customers,” she said. “I didn’t like it at first because it was so bitter, but I got used to it. And then I noticed that coffee has a lot of varieties, countries that produce light roast, medium roast, dark roast, and I got into the coffee producing countries.”

That curiosity drove Hattori to learn more about the nuances of coffee. Shortly after arriving in Arkansas to attend school at the U of A, Hattori stopped at Onyx and tried one of their lattes. But it wasn’t until the next summer when, after conducting more research on coffee, she learned more about specialty coffees — denoting the highest-quality coffee available — and discovered Onyx was one of the industry leaders in specialty coffees.  

She went to Onyx for a cupping training and began volunteering to help with Dakota Graff, director of coffee, to learn as much as she could about the industry, which led to him creating a position for her as an intern. Her experience cupping with Onyx led her to the National Cuptasters Competition in California earlier this year, where she placed in the top 16 out of more than 50 competitors.

But for Hattori, coffee is more than just a drink — it’s her way of helping those in developing countries prosper. Her experience living in the Philippines and witnessing the poverty many residents experienced sparked a desire in her to help people in need.

“I want to support people in developing countries,” she said. “With coffee, I just found a path being on the producer side and enhancing their quality of life by enhancing quality of coffee, which will help them earn more money.”

The experience with Onyx helped Hattori decide to dedicate her life to the coffee industry. She plans to pursue her Q Grader certificate next year to help develop her skills as an evaluator of green coffee. While she hopes to continue full time at Onyx after graduation, she’s also looking at the possibility of traveling abroad and experiencing coffee from other countries such as Denmark and Australia.

“We need to shrink the gap between coffee consumers who know specialty coffee and those who just enjoy coffee every day,” she said. “We can do that by being the bridge between consumer and producer and bringing people together to connect through stories and shared values.”

This story also appeared in the University of Arkansas News publication.