MANÀ CAFFÈ, CIRCONVALLAZIONE GIANICOLENSE 370, 00152 ROMA

Review: Standard, run-of-the-mill Roman coffee

After passing by the dump of Massimo Cafè, I was so glad to encounter the Manà Caffè. This places is on the Circonvallazione Gianicolense, near the San Giovanni market. It’s interior is very clean, lots of music, and fresh air being pumped into the locale for a really comfortable experience. Let’s see what the coffee has in store.

Asking for an espresso at the bar gets you the following:​

​Presentation: The coffee cup had a drip on it, meaning that one portafilter was being milked for two espressos. I don’t quite like that, but what can you do… The cup was clean, a Mokarabia Caffè logo on it, and no water offered.

Temperature of Cup: Man, it looked so promising, but then the cup was super ‘extra’ hot.

Quantity: The espresso was short and good actually, could have gone south on this but it didn’t.

Temperature: Even after waiting a lot, the espresso was very hot, too hot… leaving no room for any real taste to come through.

Volume/Consistency: Watery, very watery.

Crema: This was nice, it was quite dark, letting us know it’s all the front-end of the shot. No special techniques were used for this espresso…​

Odor: not really, I could invent the idea of one, but it wasn’t there.

Taste: Well.. let’s see, it was very very bitter on the cusp of being almost rancid… so this is because it was all the first part of the shot.​

​Overall: While the espresso wasn’t horrible, it was normal, it wasn’t distinct, nor did it stand out in any particular way from the many good cafes nearby. However, what does distinguish this place is its staff: They’re simply super nice people, making it a pleasure to by there for five minutes.

The setup: The had a very nice three-group San Remo semiautomatic that can be honed in very well. This is on par with the La Marzocco folks…. The grinder was from Faema.​Now on to the coffee itself. Here we have the cup telling us one thing, and the establishment telling me another. I’ll go with the later. The cup was pointing to Mokarabia Caffè, a roaster that I can’t seem to figure out where it is based in… but the barista said they were roasting Nero C Caffè, however, I’ve tried to look it up and also, no luck… it doesn’t seem to be the UK based coffee company, so who knows…​

Manà Caffè,

di Curto Debora

Cir. Gianicolense, 370

00152 Roma