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Rating: Standard, low-end Roman Coffee
As any good immigrant, one can’t fully shed all their previous cultural ties from the their mother country, so for Thanksgiving 2015 I had to search out real yams to make Yams and Marshmallows. So of course, I headed over to the Nuovo Esquilino market: A place crowed with many stalls upholding the culinary values of their mother countries, and of course nodding every now and then towards the local context. As you walk in on the left-hand side sits the Bar Del Mercato Esquilino. It’s got all the trappings of a regular bar, and the glass walls are a touch of pure class. Loved it from the beginning. It spoke of late 1980s even though the market is much much newer than that. Let’s see what they’re offering to drink.
Asking for a coffee got me this:
Presentation: Nice clean white no-brand cup. I like the anonymous nature of it, no crazy zany Italian font telling you the coffee inside is ‘special’. The spoon was just right. The espresso was a bit splattered in there, makes me wonder how the darn coffee came out of the portafilter? No water was offered.
Temperature of Cup: Very good, I was expecting worse. Warm, nice, and ready for me to cup into my hands.
Quantity: It was rather a full shot, way over a ristretto and yet not a double. It was solidly on the mark.
Temperature: This was also good, it wasn’t scalding. So far, we’re doing great in this international corner of Rome.
Volume/Consistency: It was thin, raspy, scratchy and I couldn’t make out much volume to the drink. It got my mouth wet the same as a cup of water would.
Crema: The crema was dark, thin and not persistent. It was cakey, almost plastic looking in appearance. I’ve met these before, and they usually tend to be extremely bitter characters…
Odor: Nope, all I could smell was the fishy aroma of nearby stalls.
Taste: It was bitter, indeed very bitter, and it pointed heavily towards a rancid drink, but it never got there. It was powerful and I had to make an effort in order to finish it . This however is a positive sign for local Romans.
Overall: As you can see, it looks creamier, heavier and richer than it actually was. It communicated a completely different experience. Again, while I give this a low-end coffee experience, I think that for native Romans, used to coffee that cuts a hole straight through your stomach, it would be a decent coffee.
The setup: Yes, it was nice, they had a Nuova Simonelli Aurelio espresso machine, and the grinder, I venture to say was an “Anfim”? The coffee they were brewing was new to me, it was Juanito Café, which seems to be a store having coffee roasted for them in Mussolente (near Vicenza, Treviso, Venice area) of northern Italy.
Bar Caffè Del Mercato Esquilino
Montigelli Ivana
Via Principe Amedeo 260/298
Nuovo Mercato Esquilino, Box no. 1
00185 Roma