The Blue Strawberry Coffee Company

The Blue Strawberry cafe closed in 2020, but Google still serves up old cafe photos, which has confused more than a few walk-in visitors who arrived expecting a place to sit. Adjust expectations before you drive there. The Marion operation is now primarily a roastery running out of a warehouse, with online orders as the main channel and beans sold in person at events like Christmas fairs and local markets. The orange mocha whole beans are the signature reach. Jitter Free is the dark roast decaf with a real following among people who want the taste without the caffeine load. All-Nighter sits on the other end as the heavy-hitter flavor, and the Colombian roast is the straightforward option if you want something less novel for the daily brewer. Shipping is fast. This is a mail-order roaster and an event-fair stop, not a cafe. If you are in Marion and want a seat, look elsewhere. If you want unique flavored whole beans shipped quickly to your house or sold to you by the people who roasted them, the Blue Strawberry operation does that part well. The cafe is gone. The roasting continues, and the email order arrives in days rather than weeks. The orange mocha is the flavored bag that sells the operation to a new customer. The Jitter Free is what gets that customer to order again the following month. If you happen to be at a Cedar Rapids area Christmas fair, the booth is the one to look for. The roastery is otherwise an online-only stop, and the warehouse address on the website is not a sit-down destination, no matter what Google's old photos suggest.