Sacred Grounds Coffee Roasters

Sacred Grounds is a grab-and-go. A customer put it as plainly as anyone could: no food options and no where to sit. That is the operating model, and it is the right one for what this place is, which is a small family-owned Connecticut roaster on Route 37 in Sherman with John doing the roasting and the beans doing the talking.

Customers compare the coffee favorably to La Colombe and call it the best beans in Connecticut. That is high praise from people who could buy from anywhere on the way to Manhattan or Boston. The lineup runs through Honduras, a Rwanda medium, and the house Awakening blend, with a Mochamaster handling the brew side at the counter for drip orders.

The drink to know about by name is the Shiner, a double espresso with orange juice, which is the kind of thing a small roaster invents and a regular orders without explaining. Pour-overs and lattes round out the menu for people who want something other than the Shiner. There is a picnic table outside if you want to sit for a minute, but the setup does not pretend to be a cafe, and the shop is not trying to compete with one.

The honesty is part of the appeal. The room is simple, homey, and built around the bag of beans you are taking home. John roasts, customers buy, and the relationship runs as long as the bags keep arriving at the right freshness.

Who it suits: Connecticut home brewers buying whole beans for the kitchen and quick-stop customers grabbing a drink on the way through to somewhere else. Not the right fit if you want food, a laptop table, or any kind of indoor lingering. The roaster knows what it is and runs it accordingly. Better suited for the bean-bag buyer than for the cafe-sitter.