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OLA BAR CAFFÈ, VIA MILAZZO 26, 00185 ROMA
Rating: Standard, mid to low end Roman Coffee
The Ola Bar Caffè is a few blocks away north east of Termini station. It’s a small mono-locale, with a terrace out on the street, just like many restaurants and cafes in this area have. When I walked in the place was dead, the barista was on her phone, and there was some kind of nature sounds coming from the wall. I asked for my cup, and continued to hear these bird calls, and animal sounds. By the time I was half way down my cup, when somebody walked in, that I inadvertently looked towards the left and saw that they were coming from a TV…. Odd experience. The bar is small, clean and doesn’t look crappy as many places near Termini do.
This is what I got:
Presentation: Yeah, cool cup. For some reason I got the urge to steal it, but didn’t. First time it happens! But the cup was clean, it was novel, as I haven’t seen any cups like this before from this brand, and the spoon was placed upside down. Dig it.
Temperature of Cup: Cup was sizzling hot. As I stood there alone in the bar, listening to crazy wildlife noises, the hot cup was yet another incognito in the equation.
Quantity: It was a short shot. The small barrel like shape of the cup didn’t permit for much already, and the espresso was short. This is good.
Temperature: It was still damned hot. I had to wait it out and listen to more owl and bird and wolf sounds emanating from the TV…
Volume/Consistency: It was a thin cup, sandy, powdery, and not oily.
Crema: The crema was thin, not persistent, and it looked like there was simply too little coffee in the porta filter to get a decent groove going. It didn’t add anything to the drinking experience.
Odor: Nope, what is that!?
Taste: It was all bitter, quickly, up front and borderline rancid. It didn’t get there, but maybe if I had tried it at a hotter temperature it would have seemed like it. No flavors, just flatness, and thin cutting bitterness.
Overall: It was an espresso that didn’t stand out, wasn’t remarkable, but wasn’t awful either. It was OK, on the lower spectrum of normal coffee here in Rome.
The setup: They had a bare-bones La Cimbali espresso machine coupled with two really great grinders. The main grinder was a Mazzer, and the decaf, a small Eureka. The coffee was Marziali Caffè, usually a very pungent, tart and acidic espresso. Here it was milder, but not necessarily convincing.
Ola Bar Caffè
Via Milazzo 26
00185 Roma
Tel. 06 4436 1664