CANTÙ CAFFÈ, PIAZZA CESARE CANTÙ 10/11, 00181 ROMA

Rating: Standard, normal bland overhyped Roman coffee

The Cantù Caffè, along the Appio south of San Giovanni and just steps from the Vila Lazzaroni park is an odd place. It is very nice inside, has a Roman-posh Murano glass chandelier styled interior (see photos below), and appropriate price. When you open up the menu, you get the option of choosing a crazy premium coffee. There’s very nice pastries too, and lots of other things all accordingly priced quite high. Well, I tried their cafe that was supposedly ‘author work’. But what was odd of this cafe is that it reminded me of the Adriatico Torrefazione, or a place like that, where you have lots of beans mixed without … essentially….any palpable effect.

Asking for the much anticipated coffee got me this:

Presentation: Just this, no water. When I asked for water, I was charged .50 cents, nice…. The cup had AICAF, which is the acronym for the Accademia Italiana Maestri del Caffè. A training center for Baristas, Roasters, etc. Let’s see how this holds up.

Temperature of Cup: Yes, it kept with the Roman tradition of scalding hot cup.

Quantity: Nice short shot, because the cup was rather larger for an espresso..

Temperature: After waiting for two minutes, the coffee was OK.

Volume/Consistency: Here’s the first real test, it was watery, runny, thin, no oils present.

Crema: It was thin, there was some texture to it, looked like it might have been interesting. But it was light, not persistent, and not oily.

Odor: Ok, dark wood burnt smell. That was something, at least something!

Taste: So here we arrive at some type of concluion, it was very bitter yet not rancid. No subtlety of flavor whatsoever. No complex tastes, just straight dark roasted coffee. Bitterness, no rancidness.

Overall: So yes, just a run of the mill coffee experience. Nothing exciting, and definitely not worth the price. Now here’s why I say all the hype, read on….

The setup: They had a nice La Cimbali machine, and two Mazzer grinders, and another more specialized grinder, a super nice Mahlkonig K30 Vario Espresso that kicks out great grinds.

So now we get to the coffee. Here’s what I ordered, had and paid for:

Yeah, read on, it is quite a thing… I won’t go into the details, because the coffee experience, the thing I had in my mouth, wasn’t up to par at all. So maybe this is worth another visit to see if a different barista is kicking out better coffee?

Or maybe, did I get served this by mistake, and was charged for the ‘deluxe’ coffee?

Yeah, they had Bondolfi Boncaffè (Monterotondo, Roma) in the premises, and that’s what I think might have happened. But who knows. I’ve had this coffee before and it’s quite poor, along the lines of Palombini… so next time I pass by, I’ll make sure I get skinny on what happened here…

Cantù Caffè,

Piazza Cesare Cantù 10/11, 00181 Roma