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Rating: Standard, lower-end Roman coffee
The Caffè del Seme e la Foglia has an interesting name. The coffee house of the seed and leaf. Ok, we’ll leave it at that. So with this alternative name, I was hoping to get a different coffee experience. Especially since this is in Testaccio near a place where you have lots of young folk parading about. The locale had loud music, seemed to be centered more on drinking alcohol than caffeine and yet the baristas, who were decked out with tons of tattoos and gave an aura of being pissed off, were gentle, kind and accommodating. The coffee experienced seemed promising.
When I asked for a coffee they put this on the counter:
Presentation: I was glad of the size of the cup, this was going to be a short experience. I was not so hot on the brand I saw, but was glad to see if this time it would prove any different. No water offered. The cup was clean, tidy and seemed in order.
Temperature of Cup: But that was just the start. It was glistening white because the ceramic was scalding hot!
Quantity: As you can see, very short espresso, I would call this a ristretto, and I was happy.
Temperature: Man, you can tell I’m not a Roman, as even after I waited for a good long minute, I still burnt my tongue on this coffee…
Volume/Consistency: Watery, thin. Not doing it for me.
Crema: However, the thick brown crema which was quite persistent was amusing and interesting.
Here’s halfway down’ the experience, you can see I gave the coffee a swirl to try to cool it down and also to see if I could make the wateryness go away by moving some of the coffee silt from the bottom to the top… but no luck.
Odor: Well here’s a difference, there was a charming warm roast coffee smell to this cup! I’m glad I gave it a smell!
Taste: So as is usual with this brand, the espresso was bordering on rancid. It’s watery texture helped push the rancidness off. Still it was a damned strong bitter experience. Made my stomach turn in fright when I was going through the motions of drinking it.
Overall: So yes, overall because of the temperature of the cup and coffee and the watery nature of it, I won’t say this was bad, but it was a standard low-fare coffee. It was indeed controlled, and I think this is what Marziali coffee is looking for, a ‘kick your ass’ espresso.
The setup: As you can see they had a nice three group E-61 based Wega espresso machine with an unidentified grinder. The coffee brewed was Marziali Caffè which is all about tough Roman coffee culture. At least that’s how I characterize it. I think this is what cops and mafiosi drink before going out on the job…
Il Caffè del Seme e la Foglia,
Il Seme e la Foglia Due S.R.L.
Via Galvani, 18
00153 Roma