Dark Matter Coffee

I absolutely love The Mothership location of Dark Matter Coffee on Western Ave... it is a hidden gem coffee shop and tiny gathering place. The staff is super friendly and has encyclopedic knowledge of all their (present and past) coffee blends. The bagged coffee selection is wonderfully extensive (I couldn’t decide on just one ~so bought a variety of ten bags of their whole bean coffee to make my own liquid gold magic at home! The bacon donut I purchased there was extremely fresh (It was a Do-Rite donut, no wonder it was delicious!) I know Dark Matter coffee can be purchased online or at Whole Foods, but it is worth a trip to this unexpected location.

Cortado was excellent. Definitely one of the best that I have had. Barrel aged mocha was excellent. Unique flavor and subtle warmth. It reminded me of the warmth you experience after a whiskey 🥃 👽 The Mothership was such a cool experience. ☕️ Great coffee. Great atmosphere. Great service. Located outside of Downtown Chicago, it was a little drive out of the city 🏙️ but absolutely 💯 worth it. If visiting Chicago and you know coffee, I would make a point to stop by! Unicorn 🦄 blood 🩸 espresso blend beans are definitely recommended to take home! They roast their own beans so… 🤩 of course it’s taking some souvenirs home!

The spot! One of my top two for coffee in the city. The sidewalk seating is great, especially on an overcast late summer day. A light array of pastries and breakfast foods though I'd say get there early if you want the full selection. Free street parking.

Dark Matter are my favorite roasters - not just in this city, but anywhere. The key thing here, and what a lot of roasters struggle with, is CONSISTENCY. While some blends are not to my personal taste, the ones that are (and there's a lot of them) simply knock it out of the park every single time. Unpretentious and fun, the staff are always very cool here. You come in to buy a bag, and you also get a free hot or cold coffee. That's service and paying attention to the customer experience. Stop by and give them a try.. Places like this absolutely need our support in this town!

If you don’t like dark roast coffee, you’re probably not gonna love this spot but if you do like dark roast coffee, then you can definitely get a good cup here. I feel like the location is super convenient. I’ve had no problems with customer service and they work pretty quickly with getting you your beverage so you can get out the door. It’s right around the corner from my spot and I visit it frequently. Love it here.

Dark Matter is known for their impressive specialty coffee concoctions. After multiple people told us we needed to visit while in Chicago, we went to their location known as The Mothership on N Western Ave. They’re known for their Draft Iced Coffee list, which are coffees at triple strength brewed hot then flash cooled. The Chocolate City Draft Iced Coffee was very smooth and an easy drinker for a regular warm day, one of their Draft Iced Coffees had beer hops that reminds me of an IPA-meets-Stout, and the Vanilla Suburbs Nitro is infused with cacao nibs and vanilla beans without any added sugar. As I was very indecisive and it was my first time there, the barista Rosemary was so kind and let me do small samples of these three Draft Iced Coffees, which was a great experience and honestly I think they should start selling coffee flights because their offerings are so unique and great for side-by-side comparisons. From their specialty drink menu, I went with the Iced Cafe Miel, which looked a lot like the iced caramel macchiatos you see at Starbucks because the honey drizzle around the sides looks like caramel. The Latin America espresso blend that they used for the Cafe Miel is called Unicorn Blood, and it went really nicely with the honey and oat milk in the drink. I loved learning that the honey used is sourced from the same farm in Guatemala as the coffee! They also make their own high-quality chocolate bars that are absolutely delicious, and there are three different designs/chocolates that you can choose from at the front counter. Chris went with the Barrel-Aged Mocha, which included barrel-aged espresso, vanilla syrup, chocolate, and milk. He said he couldn’t really taste the barrel-aged aspect but that it was a nice beverage. We also ordered the draft oat milk latte, which I would recommend for anyone who doesn’t want their coffee to taste too strong, as it was mainly the flavor of oat milk.