On the hunt to try every espresso roaster in Connecticut brings us to Mystic for Absolute Bearing Coffee Co.

But this picture isn’t them!
It’s because the roastery has very odd public hours and does not have an attached cafe.
But the nearby Mystic River Chocolate Cafe serves their espresso!
So this is a dual post.
My problem with Mystic River Chocolate is that they love cocoa too much.
Now that wouldn’t seem to be a problem, except I mean this very literally.
They love cocoa.
And it seems that they don’t like things like sugar getting in the way of you tasting it.
Their Iced signature Drinking chocolate (70%, because the one with even less sugar would be unbearable) is fine.
It’s a thick iced drink with milk, but has this weird chalky aftertaste.
I can’t imagine what it would be like with even less sugar and milk.

The Rating: Iced Chocolate
6/10
But that’s not why we are here.
What we are here for is the elusive Absolute Bearing Roasting Co espresso.
Espresso
Unfortunately, it is a little bland.
The two dominant flavors are char, and a little soap.
There isn’t much depth to it, and it almost has a beer-like quality.
So think of if you were drinking something made from burned beer malts, that’s about what you get here.

The Rating: Iced Chocolate
5.5/10
Absolute Bearing Coffee Company
Address: 500 Noank Rd, Mystic, CT 06355
Hours: Sunday Closed
Monday 3pm to 5pm
Tuesday & Wednesday Closed
Thursday to Friday 3pm to 5pm
Saturday Closed