Prepack Coffee Guide

Buying ethically-sourced and locally-roasted coffees is a wonderful first step to brewing coffee shop-quality coffee at home. Instead of becoming overwhelmed trying to pick the right type of coffee to suit your tastes, let this handy guide point you in the right direction.

The Labels

Each bag of Ironclad beans will include key details about the beans on the outside of the bag. These details include:

• Name of the Blend/Origin: Coffee can either be sold as “single origin”, meaning that all the beans in that pack originate from the same farm, or as “blends” which incorporate beans from multiple origin points. If the beans are blends, the packaging will be labelled with the name of the blend such as “House of Usher” or “Steam Engine”. Alternatively, if the beans are single origin, they will have the location where they were grown, such as “Brazil Poco Fundo”.
• Flavor Notes: The flavor notes are the natural flavors that come out through the coffee after brewed. These can include chocolatey notes, fruit notes, and many others. Tasting notes can be very subtle and it often takes practice tasting (or “cupping”) coffees before people are able to identify flavor notes.
• Coffee Processing Type: After coffee cherries have been picked from the tree, they have to be processed. Different processing methods— such as natural, washed, and honey-processed—impact the final result. Where naturally processed beans tend to be sweet and fruity while washed beans are often bright and acidic.
• Altitude: Coffee grows best in higher altitude regions. The altitude at which a coffee is grown can actually alter the way a coffee tastes!
• Bean Variety: Under the larger umbrella labels of "Robusta" and "Arabica" are many specific varieties of coffee beans. This label tells you exactly which variety is in your cup.
• Roasting Date: Like any other naturally produced good, coffee expires. In order to help you avoid drinking old and stale coffee, we include the date your beans were roasted right on the bag!

The Rotation

At Ironclad, we are always on the search for incredible coffee beans. Because of this, the coffees available for purchase at our cafe vary from day to day. While we will always offer certain coffees, others are only available for a limited time.

Ol' Reliables

These are the coffees that are most frequently and reliably available on our prepack shelves in order of dark to light. 

• House of Usher
  With tasting notes of Dark Chocolate Ganache and Strawberry, this house blend is quite a delight. It is made up of half Brazil Poco Fundo and half Honduras Finca La Joya. Despite identifying as a medium roast, it is popular among dark roast lovers and makes for a wonderful breakfast coffee.
• Bare-Knuckle Espresso
  Bare-Knuckle Espresso (BKE) and House of Usher are made with the same blend of beans. The difference? Lighter roasting brings out unique tasting notes of Sweet Pipe Tobacco and Vanilla in the BKE blend. 
• Brazil Poco Fundo
  This medium-roast single origin coffee is rich and reliable with tasting notes of cherry cordial and almond.
• Decaf Guatemala
  Our decaf beans are on the lighter side of a medium roast, bringing out the cacao nib and stone fruit flavor notes.
• Steam Engine
  Our Steam Engine blend is a combination of Brazilian and Colombian coffees. It is a lighter medium roast with strong notes of chocolate and baking spices.

Frequent Finds

In addition to the coffees mentioned above, we try to keep a rotation of coffees that meet general criteria (usually a specific processing type and country) on our shelves. These coffees will all be light roasts and will be kept on rotation depending on what is available at the time. 

• Washed Nicaraguan
  Sourcing from Gold Mountain Coffee Growers, we almost always have a washed Nicaraguan coffee on hand. An example of this was the "Fighting Poverty Microlot" with tasting notes of plum and milk chocolate. 
• Washed Ethiopian
  We love to keep washed Ethiopian coffees on hand. One of our favorites has been the Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Idido with bright yet sweet notes of lime and tropical fruits.
• Natural Ethiopian
  Our natural Ethiopians tend to have more delicate and sweet flavor profiles when compared to washed Ethiopians. One example of our natural Ethiopian offerings is the Ethiopia Guji Gatame Muka with flavor notes of hibiscus and honeydew.

Limited Edition

We are always on the hunt for beans that bring something new and exciting to the table. As new harvests become available, we sift through samples to find exciting new offerings. Because some of these exciting coffees are only available in limited amounts, they are only available while supplies last. In the past, some of these unique and special coffees have included: 

• Yemen Al-Roowad
  A rare find with a wild and complex palette consisting of grape jolly rancher and cacao nib tasting notes
• Honduras Luis Loiva 
  A very unique coffee with tasting notes of apples, custard, and papaya.
• Colombia Finca Villa Ines
  This funky coffee tastes like you're biting right into a juicy strawberry!
• Honduras Nelsy Castillo
  A coffee with the truly extraordinary tasting notes of grape taffy and bubblegum

No matter your preferences, you're bound to find a coffee you love. We encourage all our customers to continue trying different types of coffees-- from lighter to darker roasts, from washed to naturals-- to discover your likes and dislikes! If you ever need suggestions or help with finding the right prepack for you, our friendly baristas are always excited to help guide you through the process and tell you more about Ironclad's coffee offerings.