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Rating: Standard, mid-range Roman coffee
The Giolitti Caffè is one of those iconic places, much like Sant’Eustachio is, that has to be visited if in Rome, and which people crowd about like crazy to get a taste of an authentic ‘Roman’ café. I visited this place and it was rife with tourists (hell what am I!?) and Christmas shoppers doing their last minute things. It was in the afternoon and the bar area was relatively empty, what people were going after was the ice cream and then the restaurant. The interior is very nice depending on your taste, it’s split in two sections one, on the left, that’s more of a sit-down restaurant with very nice fancy 18th century –like décor, and on the right is the ‘bar- ice cream parlour’ area. See the few pix I took below.
But let’s cut to the chase and get at the heart of the matter. Paying first and then presenting the receipt at the bar got me the following:
Presentation: The cup was nice, it was rather thin, not too big, and I got a nice chocolate served with the espresso. The spoon had a very long handle and was just right for the cup size. The logo of Giolitti was in green and very small, elegant. No water was offered, but a couple of dutch guys that came up after me got their money’s worth and asked for water and it was given without a problem to them.
Temperature of Cup: It was good. The cups were in constant rotation (although this started to happen as I left, as it was dead-empty when I first got my coffee). And it appears that they did keep the espresso cups on top of the machine. But who knows, with so many people inside they’re probably flying directly out of the washing machine….
Quantity: The cup had a potential to go big and long, but it was a rather short shot. Not too long, not too ristretto. It was OK. It’s the type of espresso you expect in this style of cup. Something ‘typical’.
Temperature: The espresso was at a good temperature.
Volume/Consistency: It was silky, not thin, and it had a consistency of sunflower seed oil. Slippery, definitely some volume, but absolutely nothing compared to olive oil… so it wasn’t 100% up to par. But not bad.
Crema: It was darker than the picture showed, it was a bit sandy, but not cakey nor lava-like. It had some character to it, and had some signs that it was overextracted. It was persistent, and yet lacked oils.
Odor: Hmm… yes, there was smell of coffee but it was very dark, over-roasted, too dark roasted. It gave a rancid impression.
Taste: It was a taste I’ve encountered a lot, it was deeply bitter heading towards rancid but not really there. It wasn’t complex in any way, nor was it nutty either. It was very flat. It was more towards the bitter-rancid area than the solid bitter rich.
Overall: It was a normal coffee, nothing remarkable, especially because the crema wasn’t doing its job- it wasn’t adding to the coffee drinking experience. It was a rather Spartan coffee that would work very well with something terribly sweet by its side. The contrast of tastes would make this actually very good.
The setup: They had, as you can see, a custom Faema E-61 based Legend four-group machine. Quite a beast and quite nice! The coffee being brewed was that by Mondicaffè. It’s a local roaster that is busy trying to educate people on the nascent Third Wave scene here. However, wouldn’t it be better for them to give the Giolitti folk a hand at brewing excellent coffee? It’d make a world of a difference!
Giolitti
Eridi Giolitti Silvano S.R.L.
Via Uffici del Vicario 40
00186 Roma
Tel. 06 699 1243