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Rating: Standard, good Roman coffee
In the non-touristy area of Trastevere, at the corner of Piazza San Cosimato (with this amazing jewel of a medieval church), you encounter the Bar Roma Libera Caffè. It’s always got lots of locals and Romans (who are visiting the hospital across the street), and always has people lounging about its exterior. The interior is warm, busy with furniture and wall to wall shelves, etc., but somehow rather empty (which is a nice and welcome change!). The staff super chill, and courteous. All these things are again, a welcome sign of a place you want to visit.
Whatever, let’s get straight to the matter, when I put my receipt on the counter, the barista asked me from the espresso machine what I wanted. This is what he gave to me ‘caffè’:
Presentation: No water offered, but the politeness of the barista probably would have been inclined to give me water, had I asked. The cup was fluted, small, from a brand I’ve had good experiences with, so we’re off to a good start. Look at the spoon, I liked it. It was reminiscent of some type of Empire like 19th century decor and while it was all beat up, it was nice.
Temperature of cup: Very good temperature, I was glad, cause these fluted cups somehow seem to be very hot lately.
Quantity: It was a short shot as you can see, probably a ristretto and this was such a positive thing on this somewhat hot morning.
Temperature: The shot itself, great, good temperature, and again, the cup and coffee seemed to melt into each other- simply seamless.
Volume/Consistency: It was oily, not thick, but not runny. It wasn’t sandy,either. It was simply watery with a high oil content, there weren’t many coffee sediments in the extraction itself. Positive.
Crema: It was dark, with one side lighter, showing me that the barista pulled off the shot at the right moment. The espresso was not milked with another cup, so this was 100% full portafilter for one short shot. That was very nice.
Odor: I smelled dark acidic coffee, again, another positive thing here and while we’re not latching onto Third-Wave coffee which seems almost inexistent here in Rome, we had that very pleasant smell of freshly roasted coffee. Bravo!
Taste: Yup, the first sensation is one of heat, then of bitterness, deeply bitter coffee. But it wasn’t rancid, nor made you wilt. It had a nutty aftertaste and while this is expected from the type of dark roast, it was indeed one type of taste parameter other than ‘charred beans’ so common here in Rome.
Overall: It was a pleasant espresso. Very stout, pungently bitter, but not offensive nor rancid. It was dark in its flavor spectrum, and very oily- wet but oily, so it was rather good. Look at how the crema clung onto the sides of the cup, that’s a nice picture indeed!
The setup: They had one of my favorite setups, an Astoria Three-group espresso machine, with like-brand grinder. This seems to be almost always spewing out decent coffee. I guess its people who choose Astoria machines, have rather decent coffee paired with it (remember, its not the bar who decides what machine to use, but the coffee brand distributors who offer a ‘complete service solution’). The coffee was the Piramide Roman based Tintori Caffè. I’m very glad this was a good representation of their stuff!
Bar Roma Libera Caffè,
Bar Va. Ma. SRL
Via Roma Libera 1-3
00153 Roma