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Rating: Standard, mid to low level Roman coffee
The Lin Snack Bar Caffè, we’ll, hold on. It’s actually just called ‘Snack Bar’ and since there’s a gazillion of these in Rome (yes every other corner has a ‘snack bar’), we’ll call this the Lin Snack Bar, so that we know precisely where to find it! Either way, this place is in a cool sounding street – the “street of the marble foot” and its on a by-way of many sights in downtown Rome. It’s guaranteed to get clients…It’s a monolocale, narrow and long, and very calm. It’s got some inherited 1980s vinyl covered interior, with a dark end with slot machines. It’s run by a pop and son duo that take the coffee business very straight forward- methodical, I’d say. With the slew of tourists, there’s little opportunity for anything else. When I asked for a coffee, the guy took out his ear buds from his phone, as I interrupted his TV viewing, and went through the motions silently, without looking at me one second.
This is what I got:
Presentation: Nice cup. I like this brand usually (in comparison of other Roman roasters). Cup was clean, spoon was tiny, and a bit small for this cup. All was in order. No water given.
Temperature of Cup: It was good, not very hot, I was happy.
Quantity: Long shot, very big espresso, I’d say a bit over an ounce.
Temperature: Good, not very hot.
Volume/Consistency: It was silky, not oily, not heavy, it was light and repeatable. It didn’t have any thick coffee grinds inside and it was very smooth.
Crema: It was perfectly even, it was not over extracted. And yet light and uniform. It was persistent and not very oily. This is a mix that has little robusta in it, probably 30%.
Odor: Very slight coffee roasted smell. I liked it.
Taste: It had a very acidic front taste, wasn’t rancid, and opened up to a flat, somewhat stale taste that is not characteristic of this coffee. But then, as I got through the end of the espresso, I started to find that after this flatness, when I lingered more on the espresso, that I found some notes of nuttiness… of some sort.
Overall: It was decent, flattish, not remarkable, and neither offensive. It lacked in volume, consistency, and character.
The setup: They had a spartan, and very nice Grimac E-61 based espresso machine. The grinder I couldn’t make out, and the coffee was Gran Caffè Santos. Again, this is a local Roman roaster that tends to have consistently good coffee. I don’t think I’ve ever tasted anything rancid from them. That speaks volumes!
Snack Bar Caffè
Lin Tiangsheng
Via del Piè di Marmo 5
00186 Roma