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Rating: Standard, mid-range Roman coffee
Wandering through the calmer areas of Trastevere, we still finds some cafes that haven’t been turned into hyper-tourist venues serving everything from a Banana split maple-syrup pankale ice-cream to Thai rice all in one menu. The Antica Caffetteria Berti dal 1951 remains staunchly normal and in the style of traditional Roman cafes that you’ll find in other less frequented areas of Rome. As the name says, it’s been around since the WWII post war boom times and the period that Trastevere was seeing it’s working class rising into prosperity. It’s got a very interesting interior that kind of splits the locale in to parts, both are divided by the central bar that forces clients to choose one side or the other of the cafe. On the left is standing room area, and on the other side are tables for folk to lounge about with the newspapers. The staff was super friendly, calm, slow and relaxed.
Asking for a coffee got this nice surprise on the counter:
Presentation: No water given, but the cup was very elegant. The saucer had a fine gold rim to it, and the up had the bar’s name writen on it along with the coffee brand being brewed, which was Caffè Profili. The cup was fluted in a nice way, and the square handle gave it a nice twist. I dug it. It was rather tall however, making it better for a macchiato.
Temperature of Cup: Here was the first thing, the cup was boiling hot. I touched the cool little handle and felt it burn immediately. Then I waited for a good two minutes reading the news…
Quantity: While I waited, I looked at the coffee, and it was a good size, it was a good one ounce (ca. 30 ml.) and probably a bit more. But it was right on the dot.
Temperature: Like an dunce, I thought ok, the cup cooled down a bit, and I start to take a big first sip as I inhaled to get a smell of coffee. Ouch! I completely burnt my tongue… It’d been such a long time since I burnt my tongue so bad… we’ll one is never to old to learn as they say!
Volume/Consistency: Well, after getting over the initial shock, I waited some more and could tell that the coffee was light, thin, not very dynamic in volume, and not necessarily silky but thin, tight.
Crema: The crema was OK, it was caky, thickish, light brown, without traces of any complex oil life in its prior existence. It was rather persistent.
Odor: Yes, I guess this is why I burnt my tongue, I was too distracted by the perfume of dark roasted coffee emanating from the cup! Bravo!
Taste: The coffee was very bitter, extremely bitter and pointing towards rancid, but never getting there. There was no complex taste profile, but a rather thin, bitter run that probably goes very well with the cookies sitting right below the coffee as you can see.
Overall: The coffee had very positive things, the size, crema, odor, and non rancidness, but it was a bit flat in the whole. You wont’ be disappointed by this coffee and it represents a traditional mid-level Roman coffee. Not the best, room for improvement, but definitely not the worst.
The setup: Man, again, I’m falling in love with these Astoria machines. I’m not sure why, but they beat all the ‘La Marzocco’ hoopla that is going on in hipster wonderland! The coffee they were serving was the Aurelia neighborhood Roman-Based roaster Profili Caffè. I haven’t had many experiences with their coffee, but this wasn’t the best.
Antica Caffetteria Berti dal 1956
Caffetteria Berti,
di Berti Sergio
Via Natale del Grande 46
00153 Roma
Tel. 06 581 7552
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