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Rating: Standard, solid mid-range Roman coffee
I had tasted this roaster, Vicerè Caffè (See FB here) quite a few times in the past, and was never fully satisfied with it. Walking around this neighborhood (what I guess is south Portuense) I had the pleasure of running into the very densely packed and exuberant flagship locale for this roaster. It is a place that is packed with stuff on the windows, and then you walk in, and you feel like you’ve been transported to a bazaar in Jerusalem or Istanbul. Stuff hanging from the ceilings, stuff peeking out at you from the walls, and the floor, also busy! I’ll get to the coffee they’re selling a bit down there, but, the bar is found to the right hand side on the back. Before that, it is much like a Castroni, i.e., a food emporium. You have liquors, chocolates, jams, teas, spices, etc., different types of food stuffs. And to boot, right as you walk in, you’re greeted by very nice coffee bins – which are traditionally left unclosed out in the open air for the beans to soak up the Roman humidity and moisture.
Asking for a cup of coffee got this served to me:
Presentation: Fun, different. It spoke of vintage, old, like late 1890s to me. It was a cylindrical cup with a fluted top. The handle out and bowed and thin-delicate. That was nice, and the ceramic of the cup a bit dark and almond color almost. The thing I didn’t like was the saucer, a generic saucer that didn’t go with this cup. The espresso cup kind of wobbled there in the middle as the depression for the cup was just a bit smaller than the base of this one. So a bit uneasy. The spoon was generic, but seemed to fit deep into the cup without a problem. Water, a big plus, was offered instantly and without asking. Good.
Temperature of Cup: It was good, not scalding, nor anything strange. Usually I’ve been offered Vicerè in scalding hot cups.
Quantity: It was a good espresso. At first it seemed long, but the cup was rather thing and narrow, so it was good in the end.
Temperature: The espresso itself was at a better temperature too. It was very warm, on the verge of too hot but just right. It seemed to be brewed well above 90 C but below 95 C. So at relatively low temperature for Rome.
Volume/Consistency: The first impact was ‘smoothness’ and then it became a light experience. Not fluff, but light, airy, open, and not heavy. It was not oily nor thick.
Crema: This was dark, grainy, persistent, and added to each sip of coffee I had.
Odor: Yes, there was indeed a warm, fragrant smell of roasted coffee both in the café, and arising from the cup!
Taste: This was the nicest surprise here- like I said, usually Vicerè has not been a notable drink. But here it was bitter up front, as 99% of roasts are here. Then, the creaminess and lighter temperature opened up to a flat taste of dark roasted coffee that was not in any way rancid. The end of the drink was also mono-chromatic, without much affair, but it was smooth and light.
Overall: Overall, it wasn’t a flavor fest, or a top notch ultra distinct espresso, but it was good, solidly mid-range Roman coffee, and much much better than I’ve had it served in very nondescript cafes here in Rome. So I was glad to change my opinion on this café!
The setup: They had a La Cimbali M39, a machine I’ve seen hundreds of places now. The grinder is a Mazzer/Astoria. And the coffee being served seemed to be the Vicerè Caffè Elisir brand of mix. I can’t find this on their website, so I guess is not a currently sold product. Not sure. But the nice thing of their website is that they actually do tell you the percentage of Arabica to Robusta beans their different mixes have. A big difference from other places.
Now, onto what they were selling at the bar itself – take a look for yourself. I won’t break it down, there were two major types- Mono-origin coffee (which they only seemed to have just a few currently available) and then the typical anonymous pedestrian blends seen in most roasters here in Rome.
On the one side, the mono-origins we have: Now look at the positive things here. It is giving us altitude of the crops, the processing, and a general description, this is REALLY exceptional here in Rome! (I’m translating into English the descriptions)
Decaf – Sweet, light, liquor-like, friend of the heart
Santos Cerrado Dulce – Natural Arabica, intense, sweet, and aromatic. 800 meters
Costa Rica Miele – Washed Arabica, fine, delicate, pleasantly citric, 1300/2000
meters
Etiopia Limu – Washed Arabica, decisive taste with notes of citrus and spices,
1300/2100 meters
Colombia Supremo – Washed Arabica, sweet, neutral and delicate, 1800/2100
meters
India Parchment – Washed Robusta, intense, slightly woody with back taste of dark
chocolate, 700/1000 meters
Jamaica Blue Mountain – Washed Arabica, full aroma, fruity and spicy notes. The
King of coffee, 2000 meters
Maragogype – Washed Arabica, giant bean, balanced cup but decisive from the
sweet and very aromatic taste, 1200/2000 meters.
Then from the ‘normal’ fare coffee this is what they actually had on hand as you can see below from the pictures:
Miscela Classic (Classic Mix), at 1.6 euro the 100g (usually 1.8 per 100g). From their website, we see that this has 70% Arabica content… so what is the difference with the following coffee?
Miscela Oro (Gold Mix) at 1.4 euro the 100g. From their website, we see that this has
70% Arabica content.
Miscela Deluxe (Deluxe Mix) at 1.2 euro the 100g
Caffè Vicerè – Arabica 100% at 1.8 euro the 100g
Caffè Prestige at 1.8 euro the 100g. And from their website, we see that this has
100% Arabica content, but again, no label as to origins.
Of the mono-origins, they had three on hand there below:
The Caffè Santos (Brazil) at 1.8 euro the 100g
The Café Costa de Costa Rica (Costa Rica Miele as they called it) also at 1.8 euro the 100g
The Maragogype at 2 euro the 100g.
And then up behind the cash register the following three:
Etiopia Limu, Colombia Supremo and the Decaf. I couldn’t make out the others, but apparently all varieties were available.
Well… the Maragogype beans are so nice to hold, that I was a sucker for that and purchased 100 grams. This is how they gave them to me:
I was a bit disappointed I didn’t get them in the brown paper bag with the logo, but ‘e’ così’.
When he was giving me the beans, I asked when they were roasted, and he looked at me perplexed and annoyed (like all other folks I’ve asked). Here in Rome the policy is ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’… as stupid as that is, it’s what it is. When you ask questions here, it’s because you’re ‘questioning’ and thus ‘critiquing’ something. But I explained that in the US they usually give a date… so he opened up very politely a bit and finally told me that they roast in continuation – and that he visits the central roaster (just south of Rome) on a daily basis to help coordinate the logistics of shipping all the coffee to the different cafes who brew their java in Rome. So he said that they roast weekly and as different types are exhausted. So…
Let’s just move to the Maragogype- look at those beans, gargantuan! Beautiful and heavy.
They were only slightly aromatic, and were slightly greasy. After grinding they were, a bit more fragrant, but still not what I expected. So they must have been roasted at least a couple of weeks back.
I brewed them at 89 Celsius and I must say that it’s been a pleasure for the past week.
There was lots of crema (even at this temp range), and after honing it in, I’ve been able to get consistently good coffee.
It has sweet caramel accents, and a grey charcoal-lie ash brown colored crema. The crema is elastic, pasty, thick, and elastic.
The drinking experience was nice, oily, bright, and only a slight bitter after taste. It is not a deep, round profound taste, but flat monothematic, which is not necessarily bad. It is a lot more delicate than I imagined, and is quite a good espresso.
I must say I was impressed! Definitely worth coming back to this place to get different types of coffee.
And lastly, to put a nice touch on it, this place hast, alongside Rinaldi Torrefazione in Ciampino, the biggest and most impressive variety of coffee on offer!
Vicerè Caffè e Torrefazione
Vicerè Simona
Via Francesco Grimaldi 108
00146 Roma
Tel. 06 556 2751