DONNA OLIMPIA CAFFÈ, VIA DONNA OLIMPIA 52, 00152 ROMA

Rating: Standard, decent brew of ‘illy’ coffee

The Caffè Donna Olimpia is a very frequented cafe. It’s got a clean, good looking interior, packed with different things to eat, drink (quite a variety of wines), and has a very Roman-Italian feel to it. The people working there are very nice. This is a place that you can comfortably go and have a coffee and hang out.

Asking for an espresso gets you this:​

​Presentation: This is an OK presentation, no water offered. The cup was clean, and we have a good promo shot for ‘illy’ coffee.

Temperature of Cup: This is another good point, the cup was warm, but not scalding hot, it was great to have a continuity between the temperature of the drink and that of the cup.

Quantity: The espresso was rather long for me. Almost a doppio, especially in this concave cup.

Temperature: Very good temperature of shot, didn’t burn my lips, and not cold either.

Volume/Consistency: Here’s where the length of the shot went wrong. It was quite a watery espresso. Lots of the substance was lost in leaving the shot go long.

Crema: As you can see below, the crema was nice, a bit too blond (see in the center especially) and it was quite thin.​

Odor: It has a very light fragrance of coffee. So something was out of sink with the shot.

Taste: Not rancid, not overly bitter, not offensive (this is already quite a feat among cafes here!), and also pleasant to drink!​

​Overall: I would say that this is a good illy. It wasn’t special, remarkable, but dependable and decent. This is what buying a bit more expensive coffee does for the retailer, guarantees a certain level of quality. However, with two local roasters not even a block away… I wonder what fantastic coffee they could be brewing if they explored just a bit of their neighbors’ craftsmanship!

The setup: They had a Faema E92 semiautomatic and a Faema grinder. As you can see, the Illy can is placed right in as a hopper and guarantees a certain amount of freshness to the coffee. They were using 100% arabica blend.​

Three other great cafes are within a block’s distance, so its essentially up to the ‘cafe’ environment one is seeking that will make one choose this place over the others. ​

Caffè Donna Olimpia,

Via Donna Olimpia 52,

00152 Roma

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