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Rating: Standard, exceptionally good Roman coffee
Right behind the Trastevere station is a neighborhood that few, if any tourists dare to venture to. There’s no magical ruin, nor anything particularly spectacular of the Portuense area, but just a straight up normal neighborhood as in any other non-touristy city. And that’s where you’ll find some real ‘gems’ in my opinion. And at the Caffetteria Il Bonsai, which is literally around the corner from the Stazione Trastevere, you’ll get a really mean, and wonderful Roman espresso. Let’s take a look.
Asking for coffee at 7pm in the evening got me this:
Presentation: I will admit, I was initially disappointed. I thought, crap, an espresso in this ‘tea’ cup?? The cup was fluted, thin, nice, and yet very tall. It felt like some English tea time cup. Whatever, it was clean, looked new, and had an interesting ribbed contour to it that seemed playful. I asked for a water and it was served very kindly on the counter.
Temperature of Cup: Very warm, but good, not scalding like a boiling cup of old lady’s english tea.
Quantity: It was quite a long espresso. The cup was big, so I thought, crap, here we go with a tea sized bad espresso.
Temperature: But humm.. it was on the spot. Touching the cup around the bottom where the espresso was, I could tell it was warm, good and not scalding. This was getting interesting!
Volume/Consistency: Man, here we go- it was rich. Like rich rich thick thick coffee! I was happy! It had a creamy consistency and thickness that blew me away and made me damned glad it was a long espresso! I could enjoy tons more of this drink!
Crema: As you can see, it wasn’t interesting from the go. It was monotone darkish brown. Usually I think hmmm… but it was darkish, thick at the beginning and then started to thin out quite a lot as I drank it in. It thinned out, but was persistent.
Odor: No real coffee smell here. Nothing new no?
Taste: It was a very bitter coffee as all Roman coffees are. But it was so rich, creamy, thick and simply enjoyable that I was completely surprised by this.
Overall:This is a very good Roman coffee! I expected some half-decent rancid brew, but instead got a really nice drink that makes me realize why this place has people hanging around it all the time. it’s got a great Roman espresso!
The setup: The setup was a normal La Cimbali four group, rather newish machine, i think an M39 if recognize this correctly. The grinder was La Cimbali also. Now the coffee, here’s what it was it’s the brand we’ve encountered before, it’s apparently based somewhere in the Lazio/Rome area. It’s Caffè Nero C, I guess the ‘C’ is there to differentiate it from the coffee chain in the UK that serves that Starbucks crap like espresso….
So, I didn’t see any bonsai in the cafe, and it felt more like a sports-bar than a cafe, but it was a nice surprise. All the blue lights, etc. made me think I was going to get a crappy deal, but instead, found an amazing espresso. So glad I walked in!
Here's a pic from when I passed by during the day:
Caffetteria Il Bonsai,
di Morgante Paola,
Via Giovanni Volpato 2B, 00146 Roma