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Rating: Standard, mid to low level Roman coffee
I had the nice luxury of killing some time in the Castro Pretorio neighborhood just north of Termini train station, and I decided to see what cafes I missed just north of the station. Low and behold, a nice group of people were standing and talking outside the Barrito [sic] Snack Bar Caffè (FB page here). Its very close to La Sapienza university and thus, lots and lots of young people. But, also, a lot of middle aged people. The locale is small, but has very high vaulted ceilings, and it lends it an air of roominess. When I walked in, there was motley gathering of North-Western Africans and native Romans (whatever that is!), and different ages sitting at the few tables having lunch. I went back to the bar and waited for somebody to man the bar. On the wall facing and on both sides of the espresso machine were two large pictures of the owner and his daughter. Given his last name, and his accent, he looked like he was also from the North-West of Africa. The place was humming with a good vibe, everybody seemed so chill and comfortable. In Rome, with its relatively segregated neighborhoods, I liked this…. Some normalcy for once! A young girl took the order and pulled the espresso.
This is what I got:
Presentation: A nice short, stout cup. Cool. And look, a brand of coffee I wasn’t aware of, Epifani Caffè. The spoon was small, the cup clean. All was in order.
Temperature of Cup: Cup was warm, not scalding, but almost too hot.
Quantity: Short, very short shot, definitely a ristretto by Italian measures. I was happy.
Temperature: Quite hot, but not borderline. It was up there. Not bad.
Volume/Consistency: Very thick, raspy, sandy, and full of oil.
Crema: Thin, persistent, and didn’t add to the drinking experience as it was simply too thin. But it was oily, sappy, syrupy.
Odor: Oh my… very dark-charred smell of coffee. Before I had the espresso my stomach turned inside out just by the smell…boy, what a way to desensitize my olfactory machine.
Taste: Well, it wasn’t horrible. It was decent. It was very flat, powdery, and mono-chromatic. It was bitter, to the core, but not rancid.
Overall: I felt that the amount of coffee grinds in the cup was just too much, and they didn’t have any particular taste- other than darkly roasted coffee, definitely 2nd crack coffee.
The setup: It was a nice setup, enviable by lots of places in the world, and very much not an eye-popper here, but I loved it. They had a nice three group Lever San Marco machine from the late 80s. The grinder I couldn’t make out with certainty, but it had the typical San Marco grinder sides with the weird grill like flanks. Now on to the coffee, it was Epifani Caffè. I couldn’t find a website for them, but all the business info notes that it’s a south Rome (Appio-Latino area, near Piazza Re d'Italia) roaster. So it’s great to have found yet another roaster here in Rome. I’ll have to pass by their shop and check it out!
Barrito S.R.L
Via Palestro 76
00185 Roma
Tel. 340 904 7389
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