Cacao Ka-Ching!
Mystic River Chocolate Cafe, Groton
August 2024
Do you like chocolate?
Do you like really expensive high-quality chocolate? The kind where you talk about single-sourcing and Ecuadorian vs. Nicaraguan cacao? Well, then hit up my man Fernando at Chokaico at one of his pop-up events.
Or, if you’re in southeastern Connecticut, check out the Mystic River Chocolate Cafe tucked away on Water Street in heart of Mystic. And bring your credit card. (While I was here at the Cafe with Damian, my wife was stretching her credit card down the street at Sift Bakery with Calvin. Such is tourist life in Mystic.)
This place not only makes and sells fancy chocolate bars, but they’re also a brewery and a cafe. They have pastries and coffees and other things… much of which incorporates Mystic River’s chocolates. It’s a creative business model to be sure, and to succeed in this location, they need to be on top of their game.
As for the brewery side of things, this one is teeny tiny, but I was very impressed with their small tap list. The coffee looked good, even if the barista seemed a tad embarrassed that they don’t roast their own coffee beans in-house – but made sure to tell me they were locally roasted, just as the bakery items were all locally made.
I don’t write about coffee roasters or bakeries, so that makes no difference to me. I do write about Connecticut chocolate makers however, so let’s get to the good stuff.
Mystic River Chocolate creates & crafts small farm grown & wild grown rare, heirloom & specialty cacao from around the world.
I think there’s a word or two missing there, but when you’re a small business with a brewery and a chocolate making operation, you don’t have time for proofreading.
We are a Connecticut-based company both producing and crafting organic bean-to-bar chocolate in small batches, made fresh. In 2010, we aimed to create the best tasting organic dark chocolate from organic cacao nibs, for friends, farmer’s markets and local retailers. Hundreds of farmers markets later, we created the Mystic River Chocolate Cafe at 12 Water Street in Historic downtown Mystic, Connecticut.
There. That’s better. I had no idea what type of chocolate place this was before arriving, so I was a little surprised to see the pricing ranging from $9 to $12 per bar. Not the most expensive in the state, but certainly in the running. This stuff better be legit.
How would I know if it’s legit? I’d ask the expert directly.
Yes, that’s Fernando my Ecuadorian bean to chocolate bar making friend. Getting his seal of approval is the highest honor. Kudos to you, Mystic River Chocolate Cafe. But about that writing…
What Starts as a Crunchy Bean, Transforms into a Dreamy Elixir.
Eesh. What they mean to say is that they source their organic cacao from Ecuador and other cacao hotspots and transform the unrefined bean into edible dark chocolate bars, using “unrefined organic sugar,” organic fruits, botanicals, herbs, and essences. (Their words, not mine.) Importantly, Mystic supports fair direct trade, sustainable agriculture, and small, local farmers – who are said to be paid a fair wage through “an ethical and sustainable supply chain.”
And that’s how you get $11 chocolate bars. Which, by the way, I’m fine with. The organic condition requires much more work on the part of the farmers as well. I was only interested in the bars, but they also make barks, truffles, and chocolate covered fruits and nuts and stuff. Oh, and “European-style” drinking chocolate which I’m sure is divine. And there’s more for you people who are really into this stuff. They only use cocoa butter, no soy or fillers. They go on to coyly mention the “healthy” aspects of dark chocolate:
Research also shows that ‘cocoa butter is made up of equal amounts of oleic acid (a heart-healthy monounsaturated fat also found in olive oil), stearic and palmitic acids.’ The consensus seems to be that moderate portions of dark chocolate, (i.e. 1 ounce) a few times per week could be good for you!
Other websites describe dark chocolate containing properties that are: ‘helpful to gut microbes’, ‘anti-inflammatory’, ‘increases endorphins’, and that chocolate contains ‘anandamide, a neurotransmitter produced in the brain that temporarily blocks feelings of pain and depression.’ Most seem to agree that the ‘darker’, i.e. the higher content of cacao, the better, eaten in moderation.
Yes. When I look for verification of claims, I always like to go to “other websites.” None of this stuff is good for you – not the beer here, not the baked goods, not the coffee nor the chocolate. But it’s all delicious, so let’s get to it.
I bought six bars. These ran me over 62 bucks. If you’re curious, no, I would not spend 62 bucks on the six bars I bought again. Here they are, from worst to best:
100% Cacao Organic Single-Origin Ecuador Arriba Nacional Bar: Okay, look, maybe Fernando would love this thing. It’s like people who drink espresso straight. I knew 100% cacao would be a bitter bar, but it was so bitter that it induced hallucinations. I can’t explain it, but the process of eating a square of this transported us to a faraway place. Calvin took the remaining bar to school to offer his friends “expensive chocolate” only to laugh at their reactions upon eating it. Just not for me, or really, non-Ecuadorean life-long cacao eaters. Probably.
70% Cacao Toffee Organic Single Origin Heirloom Chocolate Bar: Here’s the thing – toffee and 70% cacao just doesn’t work. It shouldn’t even be attempted.
Sea Salt Caramel 55% Cacao Bar: Okay, all three of us (me, my wife, my son) didn’t mind this one. You want to chill with the salting of dark chocolate in my mind, but this one was fine.
32% Cacao Single Origin Heirloom Raspberry Milk Chocolate Bar: Okay, yeah, this one is by far the “wimpiest” and I get that. What I didn’t get was more than one square of this one because my 13-year-old thought nothing of tearing it open and going to town on it before I knew he’d done so. It was very good like a super high quality Cadbury Raspberry bar or whatever.
55% Mariner Provisions First Light Coffee Beans Single Origin Heirloom Chocolate Bar & Rise & Shine Dark Milk & Coffee Bar: I don’t know what a “dark milk” chocolate is and I don’t recall which of these was which, but they were coffee infused chocolate bars and were therefore good.
As you can see by the label above, Mystic River is not messing about. Good ingredients – even if eating a whole bar is about 130% of the amount of saturated fat you’re supposed to eat in a day. But who am I to judge?
I love what this little business is doing. I’m mildly fascinated by the couple who owns the whole shebang – Bill Gash an engineer and Navy Vet and his wife Casey, an artist, yoga teacher, alternative holistic therapy adherent – and how they make it work. Bill owned Xocolatl Cafe in New London, traveled to Peru and Ecuador, and decided to give this new Mystic venture a go. I hope it succeeds. And hey, if a Naval engineer can be happily married to a holistic yogic artist and own a business together? It can’t fail.
Yes it’s expensive and no, I didn’t love everything I had – but I purposely bought at least one bar I knew I wouldn’t love. You don’t have to do that because you’re not writing about this place. Just go and enjoy some chocolate… and coffee… and beer… and… the whole Mystic vibe.
Mystic River Chocolate Cafe
CTMQ’s Connecticut Chocolate Trail
CTMQ’s visit here for the brewery
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