Mystic River Chocolate Cafe Brewery

Mystic Mystery
Mystic River Chocolate Cafe Brewery, Groton
August 2024

If you were to ask anyone how many breweries there are in Groton in 2024, I don’t think anyone would say five.

But the correct answer is (was in 2024, anyway) five. Outer Light is proudly Groton, but the other three are in the Mystic section of Groton and of course Mystic has infinitely more cache than Groton.

Furthermore, two of the three in Groton’s section of Mystic are teeny tiny. All three are mere yards apart from each other too. And lastly, the one you’re reading about today is so lowkey that seasoned Connecticut brewery visitors almost refuse to accept that its a legitimate brewery. (The fifth is Beer’d Brewing’s outpost by the airport @ The Silo.)

I’m here to tell you that it’s a legitimate brewery.

And coffeehouse and chocolate artisan, and ice cream shop. Welcome to Mystic River Chocolate Cafe, yet another rather fantastic locally owned business in downtown Mystic. You could spend half a day here barely walking more than 20 yards… breakfast at Sift, lazy coffee followed by a beer at this place, lunch at the Oyster Club.

Sure, in so doing you’ll spend a couple hundred bucks, but you’re in Mystic. And Mystic truly is the one tourist destination in our little state. And there are only a few corny things about it.

We had stopped here on our way to a few days of relaxation in Rhode Island. Hoang and Calvin went to stand in line at Sift (worth it every time) to grab some giant treats for our trip. Damian and I popped into this cafe where I would kill two delicious CTMQ birds with one stone: a brewery and a Connecticut chocolate maker.

I knew this place had the proper licensing to brew beer, but I was also told that they very likely don’t actually brew and just serve beer from the nearby Misfit Club (née Barley Head Brewery) or Bank and Bridge Brewery. So I immediately asked, “Do you brew all your beer here?”

What followed was a rote listing of all that they do here. Which is essentially everything other than baking some of the baked goods and roasting their own coffee beans. I was assured, however, that the roasting and baking is all done by local small businesses like their own.

Let’s get a flight of their three beers, made in a cutesy chocolate shop cafe in one of the most scenic towns in New England.

Our Craft Beer is house-made using freshly malted grains, hops and inclusions, fruit, spices and cacao. Our new offerings are delicious and fresh, crafted with as much care as we put into our chocolate. We feature a range of fresh brews, usually featuring a lively IPA, or a smooth Belgian White Ale and a complex and flavorful Nitro Brew Chocolate Stout or Chocolate Ale using our Organic Cacao.

I guess you could call this an artisanal craft nanobrewery. Or something. Well, other than the fact my flight was served in plastic cups… but that may be more because of their outdoor patio area and glass may not be allowed out there. Whatever, I’m not a glassware snob.

On tap were a Belgian White Ale (hazy, complex, crisp, delicate with flavors of orange and cacao. Infused with Mystic River Chocolate cacao), Island IPA (hazy wheat malt with tropical fruits – mango, lime, and cacao. Infused with Mystic River Chocolate cacao), Nitro Chocolate Stout (you can guess the rest).

I don’t know what I was expecting here. This is NOT a brewery on the tip of anyone’s tongue. There are excellent breweries mere minutes away. Parking sucks. Selection is limited. Chocolate in everything?

Listen up: two were very good, one was superb.

I can’t pretend that I got much of the cacao in the IPA (a good thing) or the white ale (also probably a good thing). I’ve had “chocolate tropical IPAs” before and they don’t work for me. I don’t think they work for anyone, but here, I believe the cacao was more for bittering than anything, and the beer was good.

Have I mentioned how fun and cute this whole cafe is? Be forewarned that the chocolate is hyper expensive here, and even my little flight of three was still twelve bucks plus a tip because everyone here is so nice. (Meanwhile my wife was spending who knows how much at Sift for giant croissants and cinnamon buns and whatnot. Welcome to Mystic.)

This is one of the best chocolate stouts I’ve ever had.

Boom.

On the one hand, you’d expect that I guess. After all, this is a chocolate cafe first and foremost. On the other hand, no one even knows this is a brewery.

Smooth, creamy, warming, chocolatey but properly bitter and malty… and I especially love the lowish ABV at 5.4%. I’m sure they’ll do some barrel something or other at some point and amp up the booze, but that’s not something I care about.

I do care about celebrating cool little businesses. And I hope this one keeps plugging along because next time I’m down in Mystic and find parking, I’m stopping in here again.

Mystic River Chocolate Cafe
CTMQ’s Breweries and Brewpubs
CTMQ’s Mystic River Chocolate Cafe chocolate experience