L'ISOLA BAR CAFFÈ, VIA GIOVANNI ALDINI 30, 00146 ROMA

Rating: Standard, mid to upper range Roman coffee

The Bar L’Isola Caffè was simply cool. From the outside, I thought I’d walk into a 50 something bar owner’s version of cheesy preppy décor. Instead, I walked into a 1980s Tron-like bright red interior with 1980s Michael Jackson hits playing in the background. As I walked in, a slightly overwheight Brazilian lady, with a skin-tight tang-top and some flesh sticking out the bottom walked out. It was great introduction to the ambience. It was empty and I need to relax a bit, and felt like I wanted to be enchanted by the café. I sat in the very end. The place was very small, and besides the table outside, only one in the back. As I walked by I asked the barista for a coffee. She was the owner, in her mid 50s. She brought me the coffee to the table.

This is what I got:

Well… actually this is what I got:

Presentation: Yup, a coffee with sugar already, and she brought a nice cup of water immediately without asking. I felt like I was her cousin who’d come by to pay her a visit. The cup was clean, brown, and the spoon very small and to size. Liked it all.

Temperature of Cup: The cup was warm, good, not scalding.

Quantity: Large espresso, quite large for a Roman espresso.

Temperature: The temperature was spot on. Perfect. Brewed probably at 92 C or something of the kind.

Volume/Consistency: Very silky, lots of coffee in the cup, very oily, boy it was very nice.

Crema: The crema was dark, thin, and non-persistent.

Odor: Dark roasted smell, not really too charred. Smelled warm.

Taste: Here was the surprise- it was a bitter drink at first, then the tasted opened up to a chocolaty warm and rather sweet aftertaste. It really opened up and was very flavorful, quite a good spectrum!

Overall: This was a solid mid to upper range Roman coffee. While up front it was all bitter punch in the mouth, since it wasn’t so hot, it really opened up to reveal some complexity of taste! What kept it back? The overall very pronounced bitterness. It was quite a strong and long shot. I wonder what it would have been if it had been half of this?

The setup: The espresso machine looked like an old Gaggia or Faema, I couldn’t tell, and when I was about to leave to ask what the machine was, the barista was too deep in conversation with the old guy that walked in. The grinder was a beautiful Macaf- extra solid. But since I walked out without asking what the machine was, like an idiot, about 3 blocks away I realized that I had forgotten to ask what brand coffee they were serving!! You’ll have to check back, hopefully next week I’ll stop by here for another coffee and ask her.