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Rating: Good, excellent third-wave coffee in Rome
***See at the end of article/page for recent reviews***
The Rinaldi Caffè e Torrefazione is one of the best places for tasting and buying artisan Third Wave coffee in Rome, period. This is really the only place I've found so far that offers a real breath of coffee and roasts in Rome. I had passed by this place inadvertently before and didn't think of immediately wandering inside. I saw it was a roaster and placed it on my list to 'return to'. But then, at an event hosted by the Community Coffee Research Roma I saw a pamphlet of the Rinaldi coffees available, and was blown away by the variety of coffee offered. I first thougth it was up north somewhere, but then saw it was in Ciampino (just south of Rome), and realized I had to visit this place asap. Walking into the cafe one is met with the traditional Bar Pasticceria Cioccolateria establishment. It offers family artisan made sweets pastries and chocolates. The coffee is roasted by Fabrizio Rinaldi, a young member of the family that has taken up the interest in expanding and educating the local community in the lastest artisan coffee flavors and trends. So let's just get to the point of this post, the coffee.
Asking the barista explicitly for one of the special espressi being served. It was a Tanzania (Moshi) Arabica washed bean, highest quality AA Kilimanjaro. This is what I got:
Presentation: The cup was of a type I like, and it had a nice logo of the cafe that stressed the 'roaster' quality of this place. Great. It was new looking and very clean and sharp. There was no water offered, but the staff was super friendly and I'm sure they'd offer a glass of water without a flinch and without charging it. The spoon was dense and contoured and it's proportion to the cup was excellent.
Temperature of Cup: It was very hot actually. This cup was taken from the cups used for the normal 'Roman' type of coffee. So it was purposefully very hot.
Quantity: The shot was great, it was short, to the point and not diluted by extra long over-extraction.
Temperature: Great, I was afraid the coffee temperature itself would be scalding, but nope. It was nice and warm but not too hot. So they're using the brewing the same temperatures for the regular 'Roman' blend coffee for locals (which is cheaper too) and the artisan coffee I tasted.
Volume/Consistency: It was lighter than I expected, but silky enough to fill my mouth with an oiliness that was smooth, and uniform. Very nice.
Crema: I loved it. It had some tiger striping that I like. It was a bit bubbly, which I didn’t appreciate as I think the shot should have been just a bit shorter. Or inversely, a bit more coffee should have been packed in the portafilter. Either way, the crema added to the experience of drinking this and it was oily, soupy, and flexible.
Odor: Yup, great, fresh aromatic, sweet complex odor. It had a caramel and floral at the same time. It was an open-ended bright scent that was wonderful to experience in Rome!
Taste: Again, great. It was great, it had the sharp acidic-caffeine taste that lighter roasts have which then immediately opened to a round, light fruity caramel-like taste. It was great. There was no rancidness, and the bitterness was only slight, and didn’t mask the complexity of the fruit and sweet taste. Just great!
Overall: This was a superb espresso. Up there with anything I’ve had from the US. I was recently in San Francisco, and had a Blue Bottle espresso, and this was definitely much better and more sophisticated than their espresso blend. The coffee was very complex, very fruity, very beautifully light and yet consistent. Definitely, this is the best artisan roasted espresso I’ve had in Rome. In comparison to the Marjani Coffee Roaster, which is the other third wave roaster I’ve tasted in Rome, this was fruitier and more complex.
The setup: They had a old dependable workhorse, a La Cimbali M22 three group. The only hangup I had with the way the coffee was served (which happened only once, at the time I took these pix), is that the barista didn't completely clean the portafilter before putting in the single-origin coffee. There was still some of the other, normal in-house roasted traditional Roman styled coffee. This I'm sure negatively affected the taste of the espresso, but not enough- as it was still spectacular!
The Grinder they were using was a dedicated grinder, it looked like a Casadio on-demand grinder that uses flat burs. Really a great piece.
The coffee I tasted was this one:
Of the various types of coffee on sale that they had, I chose the most expensive. It was a Puerto Rican Hacienda San Pedro. At 50 euro a kilo. Here's a list from what was on display:
Here's a description of the coffee I had written by the roaster Fabrizio Rinaldi:
This is a preview from their website, and shows some of the varieties of coffee that are available to purchase at the store and online:
Let's go with the Puerto Rico that I had: I must admit that I had to try about four different times until I got a good espresso out of these beans. They were a dark roast and were a bit oily for my taste, but that gives you an idea of the level of roast that they had. They smelled of dark roasted coffee and wasn’t as fruity as I expected. There was no ‘roast date’ on the bag. After I contacted Fabrizio, he told me that he roasts small batches almost every day, as the coffee is consumed. So I assume that this bag was not older than a few weeks max.
What I experimented was the temperature and fineness of the grinds. Since they were oily, I had to pull back the amount I put in the porta filter, I got a great espresso at 11 grams.
Which is really about 6 grams less that I'd put for lighter roasts to brew in the Arrarex-Caravel machine. I brewed it first at 89 and got a very weak coffee and wasn’t happy, then I upped the temperature to 91.5 and it was perfect for this blend.
See below:
The coffee was very tart, and very nutty with some cereal-grain notes in it. The tartness made me remember of black pepper. It was great.
Extremely silky and smooth. Some of the best coffee I’ve had in Rome. I will admit that it wasn’t as good as the brew I had in the café, as that was much brighter and fruitier. This was a darker, heavier espresso in taste and in smell. But boy, a great piece of art here in Rome!
Here is the catalog I got which I picked up at in January 2016 (Prices will probably vary), Contact Fabrizio Rinaldi if you need more info:
Before finishing this post, I must add that the espresso here is superlative. The second time I came to the cafe, I had the pleasure of having a regular 'Roman' styled espresso along with a different variety of single origin coffee, and both were very good. The latter, agian excellent. The Roman espresso was dark, a whole lot bitter, but still very balanced, indeed among the best I've had in Rome. The other artisan espresso I had, shared a lot with what I've reviewed above. A really floral, tasty, complex-flavored coffee. This is a place one needs to visit when in Rome. Make sure you contact Fabrizio Rinaldi direclty before going so you have the chance to meet him!
***Here are the reviews of the Guatemala and Tanzania Coffee***
Over the past few months I’ve had the chance to taste two other coffees roasted by Fabrizio Rinaldi, working out of his south Roman roaster shop in Ciampino. Fabrizio is a super approachable guy who’s always there to talk and share coffee with his customers and anybody willing to learn about about coffee and roasting. In the future I hope to show his lab which is really great. The first coffee want to share with you is the Guatelmala Antigua region washed Arabica, five star Type SHB.
Fabrizio is the first in Rome, to my knowledge, who’s putting origin information, process, and altitude of the crops on his bags. Haven’t seen this anywhere so far in Rome from Roman roasters. With this type of coffee we have the qualities of a bittersweet chocolate taste.
I bought this coffee for my home espresso and had to hone in the fineness of the grinds quite a bit before I got a good shot out of it. The coffee is roasted for a Roman audience, not yet for full third-wave. By the looks of it, and touch it’s a roast that’s between a Full City + 2nd Crack and Vienna roast. So we’re expecting at most some caramel hints, bitter chocolate like notes and bittersweet tones. And indeed this is what we have and what the label accurately describes on the bag of beans.
The extraction, after honing it in, was about 12grams of ground coffee for a long 30ml espresso. It gave very good crema, a reflection of the roast level, and it was quite persistent, and chocolaty in texture and aspect.
After brewing the coffee had an aromatic dark roasted fragrance with no bitterness present. It was quite thick in its texture, I brewed this at a higher temperature than I normally would, at a 92C, and still kept a nice oily body. It was slightly bitter and punchy up front, and opened to a full bodied caramel-like taste. It finished with a strong bittersweet finish and when I opened my mouth to air the last sip it opened again to a faint chocolate taste.
Overall, it is a slightly more subtle traditional Roman espresso, with more qualities than the normal charcoal roasted of places here. It is intense, sharp and if you add a tiny bit of sugar I’m sure it would’ve opened up very nicely.
***
Just a few weeks ago I had the pleasure of stopping by Rinaldi Roaster again and was able to pick up this Tanzania Kilimanjaro Arabica. What drew me to this coffee is that Fabrizio roasted this especially for filter coffee use (see label in Italian on the bag).
He’s purposefully roasted it a lot lighter, It looks like a City Plus roast, meaning a bit after the first crack is done. It was decidedly lighter in texture and only the slightest of notes of emerging oils. It was full of peppery notes on opening and had the soft light-roasted coffee smell in the bag.
After I ground it coarse for drip coffee it had a more pronounced coffee with hints of vanilla scent. This was very nice.
I ground up 20g of coffee for 360g of water and brewed just under 3 minutes. While the coffee was steeping peppery notes, with hints of citric flowers could be felt. After the brewing was over however, the smell became decidedly more muted.
It's color was a very nice red-amber color. On the taste it was a very smooth, round and sweet sugar-candy like flavor. A sweet butter-nut taste came out.
There was a near absence of acidity, and it was creamy to the tongue. It wasn’t as floral as I expected, but at the end, as I let the cup cool down more, there was a hint of mint and caramel notes that came out.
It was quite a nice full-bodied round coffee in the palate.
Now to the espresso, as this I what I particularly enjoy most, although most hipsters deny any association with it. Whatever. Let’s move ahead. I brewed it on a lower temperature, at 90C and it opened up quite well. After brewing there was the same effect that the smell didn’t really open up, and was rather muted.
On the taste it was acidic and complex in its bright punchy taste. It is the brightest espresso I’ve had from Rinaldi, and in Rome generally. This is great. It wasn’t very complex in fruitiness, but this is not what you drink Tanzania Kilimanjaro coffee for. It’s a more earthy taste you seek here and I got a sense of peppery sharpness that was good. It was not heavy and the oil was bright and open. The crema was persistent and I was able to get quite a nice cap.
I really enjoyed this, and while I would have liked the fruitiness of the Guatemala, I liked the way it developed in the espresso cup. It is also, not a full acidic and bright cup, but rather a robust coffee still that while distinctly different than charcoal roasts of Rome, I think it would be quite appreciated by Romans. In fact, this was one of the really great first espressi that I tried at Rinaldi’s shop when I first walked in. They had this coffee as their ‘premium’ alternative to the regular shop roast Fabrizio does. Quite nice!
Caffè Rinaldi Torrefazione
Angel’s Bar S.R.L.
Via John F. Kennedy 27-29
00043 Ciampino (Roma)
Tel. 06 791 5758
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