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Rating: Standard, very good North-Italian coffee in Rome
On the east side of the EUR complex in south-western’ Rome, an area littered with really good cafes, we have yet another to add. The Ma.Gi Bar Caffè is on a quiet avenue lined with trees and two arcades on each side of the street. This is just down the street from another café that boasts an impressive name (à la Gran Caffè EUR), and there are at least six others in 4 square blocks. When I go to seek out new cafes, I just point a direction and go, and it’s always nice to see what type of brew is done in different neighborhoods. I was very pleasantly surprised.
Paying at the cashier first, and plotting down my receipt at the counter got this:
Presentation: Even before I could put my receipt on the glass bar, the barista had already heard what I had ordered and was almost finishing a brimful of sparkling water for me to have. The cup, ahh… nice. It was short, squat, fat, and quite broad- the ceramic wasn’t as thick as I’d had in some other cafes in the south, but this was a Neapolitan-esque espresso cup. I liked it from the go. Let’s see what the heck happened with its contents.
Temperature of Cup: Yup, the cup was actually great! I was looking at the machine (see below) and I could tell that the cups were covered with a black cloth. This is to keep’m nice and warm, and never cold. Usually this ends up with scalding hot cups. But here, and telling of what I was going to get ahead, the cup was just right to the touch. It meant that the temperature of the boiler was low, this is good in my books (depending of course on the roast, etc, but… you get the idea).
Quantity: It was hard to gage. At first it looked like a long single espresso, but when I was having it, it ended quicker than I imagined. It was a straight shot, on the short side.
Temperature: Wow, really good. It was surely not over 90 Celsius and the fact that I waited about a minute before taking it in probably helped to make a big difference.
Volume/Consistency: Thick, a mouthful, creamy, oily. Man this coffee was a dinner and lunch put together. This is how I like my espresso. I could really get at the oil profile in this.
Crema: The crema was darker than the image shows, it was slightly mottled, and wasn’t very thick. I could see that the barista wasn’t messing around with much of a pre-infusion. He pulled the lever down and then quickly pushed it up… so I wonder what type of espresso would have come out had he held on to the lever for even 3 seconds more? Either way, it was nice, and the crema wasn’t very lasting nor persistent. However, it had to do with the fact that I was consuming a lot of it with each sip…
Odor: A very faint dark roasted coffee smell. Nice!
Taste: I won’t make up any type of adjective list with this one. It was straight bitter. Very well defined, and thickly piercing. Blunt I would say. It forced it way through my mouth and drilled a hole into my stomach. However, it wasn’t rancid in any way, and even though I couldn’t taste anything that reminded me of non-charred coffee beans. It was good. It was solidly good.
Overall: That’s why, the whole experience just came together. Sometimes its about ‘acting’ the part, and this coffee did it. It had a very nice presentation, water and cup together. The temperatures were controlled, the crema nice. The volume of the drink, had a real presence. It was good, very good Roman styled coffee.
The setup: It was a beautiful Neapolitan styled machine, i.e., a four lever Rancillio espresso machine. Naples is the place that still hangs on to these beasts like mementos of past deities. The manchine was so nice, so simplistic, so elegant. Not high-grade, but just basics that in the right hands cand do magic. The grinder was an old workhorse Feama, and hten there was a small Mazzer for the decaf coffee. The coffee being served was the Caffè Vergnano 1882, a northern-Italian roaster that I’ve always had good experiences with. It is every so lighter in roast than the Roman types, and delivers some decent outcomes. So what we had here was a fusion coffee place. Fusing Northern Italian Espresso roasted beans, with Southern Italian coffee presentation and brewing, and serving it right in the middle of Italy- Rome. Nice, worth a stop if you do this area.
Ma. Gi. Bar Caffè
Viale dell’Aeronautica 89
00144 Roma
Tel. 06 591 0872
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