SAL CAFÉ ROMA, VIA BALDO DEGLI UBALDI 56, 00167 ROMA

Rating: Standard, normal run-of-the-mill coffee

The Sal Café Roma in the Aurelio district promised a real interesting coffee experience. It had a Blue Mountain coffee barrel and some Brazilian coffee bags at the entrance. It had a very nice coffee philosophy placard on the other side of the entrance, and it seems like coffee is it’s first priority (see photos below of their coffee awards on the front door). So let’s see what this translated into…​

Asking for a coffee had the effect of getting this placed on the counter:​

​Presentation: Water served on the spot, without a blink. Nice large cup but quite thick, making the contents a lot smaller.

Temperature of Cup: Extremely hot cup. It’s funny, because the barista saw me touching the cup, and of course he saw I wasn’t your standard Roman fare, and said, “you’re supposed to drink it hot here! In Rome that’s how you drink your coffee, hot!” So there you go. Learn to freaking burn your tongue or you’re simply not native.

Quantity: I would say this is a rather generous espresso. Still very espresso size, but nothing exaggerated.

Temperature: The coffee was still warm when I drank it, very warm. But this is what the barista wanted… so he achieved his aim.

Volume/Consistency: Watery espresso, was this what he wanted also?

Crema: Thin, not very persistent, and lacking body. It had some character to it in the cup, but none of that translated in the pallet.​

Odor: No odor present, or none that was strong enough for me to sense.

Taste: Bordering on rancid, but not there. Nothing characteristic.​

​Overall: OK, not bad, yet not spectacular. It was a normal coffee experience. Can’t add much more than this.

The setup: Faema espresso machine, E-nova model. And because they were sweeping inside, I didn’t see the grinder model. But probably a Faema as well. The coffee being brewed was Caffè El Mokado, this is an Ariccia-based roaster (about 1 hour south of Rome).​

Here are the coffee adverts: ​

look at the stickers on the right:​

Sal Café Roma,

Santarcangelo Alessandro

Via Baldo degli Ubaldi 56, 00167 Roma