VITTORIA CAFFÈ, PIAZZA PACE BIAGIO 6, 00164 ROMA

Rating: Standard, good quality Roman coffee, roasted in-house

The Vittoria Bar Caffè represents what a lot of Roman cafes are like, a bit of everything. Coffee is the front, and then the sides, back and roof are filled with selling lunch, sweets, tobacco and other things. This place is nice and somehow pulls off managing these things with elegance. The few times I passed by it, it was always packed with people. The barista is a straight-faced kind of guy that doesn’t like to interact much, seems very pensive, yet is very polite.​

​ Asking for a coffee got me this:​

​Presentation: No water offered automatically, but given very politely when asked. The cup surprised me, it had no logo on it. This was nice and got me curious. I’ve learned that coffee cups without logos mean something’s up in the kitchen.

Temperature of Cup: The cup was very hot, too hot in my opinion.

Quantity: Given the large size of the coffee cup, the espresso shot was short, it would have been a ristretto for some cafes in the US or other countries.

Temperature: Once I had enough time to let the cup cool down, the espresso was just right.

Volume/Consistency: It was actually creamy, silky, thick with substance.

Crema: The crema was very dark, showing it was all front end espresso, and also explaining the consistency of the coffee. It was persistent and gave the espresso a good counterbalance in taste.​

Odor: Very little, I’m always disappointed because of this!

Taste: The coffee was silky, bitter, very bitter, but not in any way rancid. It was a very decent cup of espresso.​

​Overall: I think it was a good representation of Roman coffee. I’ve had coffee at this place a few times afterwards and it’s always a consistent taste.

The setup: They had a nice four-group Faema machine with what looked like Mazzer grinder. The setup of their equipment doesn’t let me really see what the heck is going on in there! One interesting thing about the barista is that the first time I had coffee here I saw him washing (with water) the portafilters. I was impressed. Yet the second time, I saw him use a very dirty portafilter (with coffee caked on the inside rim). As I sat there drinking my coffee, I saw him do different things when preparing coffee for different clients. Depending on who came in to order, he’d have a very clean portafilter, or a dirty one. And at one point, I’ve never seen this before, he even put in some sugar into the portafilter before throwing in the coffee! He was obviously tailoring the intensity (acidity, rancidness, sweetness?) to the clients. It was totally peculiar and I liked this.​

The coffee was a surprise. I asked the barista what coffee it was and he said it was simply ‘nostro’. Or their own coffee. At some point in their life the cafe was serving Caffè Hag, as there were cups with that logo on it, and even a wall clock with it. But now they were brewing their own roasted coffee.

I spoke to the owner and indeed she said they sport two different types of coffee (in the picture below, it’s from left to right):

1) 100% Arabica blend, at 1.6 euro per 100g.

2) 50% Arabica/50% Robusta blend, at 1.30 euro per 100g.

3) Then an unidentified ‘decaf’ blend at 1.30 euro per 100g.​

So this is what the 50/50 blend (which they serve) was given to me in:​

For the home test, this is what the beans looked like: They are a mix of darker roasted and lighter roasted. Some of the beans are lightly oily, others quite dry and light roasted. Not much smell to these before being grinded. ​

After grinding them, they became a lot more fragrant. Packing the double espresso portafilter on the Caravelle/Arrarex got me this (yes, not totally honed in, but good enough to see how the coffee opened up):​

Yeah, I pulled it for a very long espresso as the ristretto seemed just pure tar!​

It had a nice light crema that was very persistent. I brewed it on the high temp side, ca. 94C. ​

​It was a decent coffee, even at home. The taste was not as complex as in the bar, but this is to my grinder which is not good enough for the machine I have… ​

Overall, a place to go to experience home-roasted traditional Roman suburban coffee. And to boot, staff are quite friendly!​

Bar Vittoria Crima Srl

Piazza Pace Biagio, 6

00164 Roma