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Rating: Standard, mid-range Milanese coffee
So after almost 300 cafes reviewed in this site, and hammering the low quality of Roman coffee for more than a year, I thought it would be fare to review one of those supposedly ‘superior’ north Italian cafes. This time, I had a chance to visit Milan, and I stopped at one of the flagship stores of Caffè Vergnano 1882. This is a brand that positions itself as modern, trendy, and most importantly, flavorful. The café is half a block away from the Duomo, and is pretty cool. All spiffed out in the latest hipster interiors (no cycles sorry!) but it’s nice, and plays of a black and white décor. The place got filled by successive waves of folks both local and tourists. So let’s see what the heck happened in this place. Are Romans missing out on really good coffee while Northerners continue to be ‘superior’?
This is what I got, I had it at the bar, but I took it to a table, I needed to take my time with it:
Presentation: No water given, so yeah, there you go. It was too busy to see if they’d give me a cup without paying. So I can’t judge on that. But look, a chocolate! Not a bad exchange. The cup was a bit beat up, not really shiny, and at first I thought it had seen a lot of action. Yet it was like this on purpose, cool! The saucer, and cup were a matte finish that made them sleek and cool. The spoon was definitely not designer, however, and was run of the mill. Not bad, Milan 1- Rome 1. This is the same treatment we’d get in any bar in Rome.
Temperature of Cup: It was good, not cold not scalding hot, it was moderate. I was glad. Good start, Milan 2 – Rome 1.
Quantity: Nice, short, shot. Very good. Here we have a good starting point for comparison, Milanese coffee is speaking the same language as Roman coffee. Short, tight and to the point. Milan 3 – Rome 2.
Temperature: Ahh… perfect temperature. This is rare in Rome, usually in the south we get hot as hell coffee. Milan 4 – Rome 2.
Volume/Consistency: Uhh.. thin, very thin, runny, and not really heavy. Maybe this is how it’s meant to be, but in my opinion, it was simply a lack of grinds in the porta filter. Something that happens often when you don’t have an automatic doser. Milan 4 - Rome 3.
Crema: The crema was uniform, thin, and didn’t die out very quickly. It looked like fresh paint. It was good. Here Rome and Milan are the same. Milan 5 – Rome 4.
Odor: Huh? Nope, non here again. The funniest thing is that when I walked in, I wasn’t knocked out by any odor of coffee. How can this be if the coffee is supposedly fresh? Nobody get’s points here. Rome is the same. Milan 5 – Rome 4.
Taste: Well, it wasn’t rich, as the consistency was very thin and runny. It wasn’t rancid, nor necessarily bitter. It was very soft. Just yesterday I reviewed a café that was very smooth in Rome. So nothing new. Was it flavorful? Were there hints of any fruits, berries, nuts, woods, or any other type of organic material that would throw this cup into a third-wave realm? Nope. Is this any different than a run-of-the-mill coffee in Rome? Nope. Remember this is not an advertising site for any coffee brand. This is to help you navigate away from all the tourism fluff abounds! So here we have Rome going one up on Milan. We have Milan 5 – Rome 5.
Overall: It was normal, mid-level coffee. I’ve had Vergnano coffee in Rome, and it was better than this. So it’s a tie. No real difference between the two. Us folks in Rome aren’t missing out on much. Now maybe if we go to the Veneto area, that might be a different story?
The setup: They had a nice Wega Polaris which is not seen often in Rome. The grinder was a Mazzer, and then for the decaf they had a grinder that should have been used for the regular stuff… a nice monodoser Mazzer that was programmable. The coffee of course is Caffè Vergnano 1882- this is a Milan based roaster that has an aggressive marketing campaign pushing for its coffee as a young, cool, and tasty alternative for all the hip Italians.
Now I will say, and this is were Milan wins out over Rome, is that the interior was nice, and it invited folk to sit and linger in the café. This is a stable of Milanese coffee culture, to use cafes a chill out places. This is entirely lacking in Rome. So we have… at last: Milan 6 – Rome 5. …
Caffè Vergnano
Via Speronari 3
20123 Milano