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Rating: Standard, low-end Roman coffee
The Caffè dei Papi sits just north of Vatican City, and just a hop away from the Piazza del Risorgimento. It’s guaranteed billions of folk passing by each year, and yet again, we’re met with a traditional experience that doesn’t seem to catch on to the market it’s got literally at its doorstop. The Barista was a very nice person, a newcomer to Rome just like me, and yet, knew what the deal was. People seem to adapt very well here and acculturate to the local customs. But, we’re not here to talk decor, nor sandwiches, nor about location, it’s the coffee we’re after. Let’s go see.
Asking for a coffee got this kindly placed on the counter:
Presentation: The cup was clean, the spoon crisply dried, and no water was offered. The small cup was great, and I was expecting something good, especially because I recognized the coffee brand. The barista seems to have caught on nicely with Roman coffee culture.
Temperature of Cup: The cup was extremely hot. Yes, that’s the way it ‘should’ be here in Rome, and it was no different here.
Quantity: The extraction was very short, very concise, and tight. Great! This is looking up.
Temperature: Still darned hot for the size of this shot. It should have cooled down quite quickly along with the cup, but nope, still very hot.
Volume/Consistency: It was thin, watery, no thickness to it. Such a let down!!
Crema: The crema had some traces of life in it. It had different color fields to it, there was a sign of an early and nicely thick espresso, and then the blonding of overextraction. It was thin, not persistent, and died out halfway along this very short espresso.
Odor: Couldn’t find it. The humidity that day didn’t help either…. I guess.
Taste: It was very bitter, the temperature of it pushed it towards the rancid side, but it didn’t get there.
Overall: Given that the taste gamut was so limited, that it was almost rancid but not there, and that it was extremely hot, the coffee just didn’t go above a lower-end Roman espresso experience. The previous post here (Appia Antica Caffè) had the same coffee brand and did a great job at their coffee. This paled in comparison.
Overall, had there been some honing in of the grind size, to brewing temperature, to the amount of coffee in the porta-filter, and then, just simply just some TLC we’d have had a really great coffee here.
The setup: It was straight spartan and no frills. Just the facts. They had a late 80s Rancilio three group machine, with a like grinder that together somehow seemed space-age. Had the cafe been sleek it would have been perfect. But here it kind of stood out like a sore thumb.
If you see the top of the bottom picture, you’ll see that the Caffè Moca merchandising was everywhere. Here a clock on top of the coffee machine..
And here by the slot machines…
The locale was long and narrow, and semi-interesting. Like all coffee shops here in Rome, it’s very hard to define what a ‘coffee shop’ is… it’s everything, and then at times, with a little ‘coffee on top’.
Caffè Dei Papi,
Mokrari Ismail
Via Vespasiano 14, 00192 Roma
