GUSTO MASSIMO BAR CAFFÈ, VIA DEL CIRCO MASSIMO 5, 00153 ROMA

Rating: Standard, mid to low-end Roman coffee

Right at the top of the Circo Massimo, on the other side of the United Nations Food and Agriculture building, and of course, at the mouth of the Metro exit is the Gusto Massimo Caffè. It’s always packed with tourists, always. And when you walk up you get spoken in English, and when you try to speak in Italian, they treat you like a fool. Nice. But whatever, after having a yelling bout with the cashier, because of the loud noise of course, we were able to understand each other that all I wanted was a damned espresso. A coffee.

This is what I got at the bar:

Presentation: Well, the barista was super super busy. She didn’t stop one darn second. Had about a hundred espresso, cappuccino, etc., etc., so water? What the hell is that, it’s in the espresso no? The logo was nice and ‘cute’ we could say. The spoon to measure.

Temperature of Cup: Good, kind of cold.

Quantity: Nice short shot, happy with it.

Temperature: It was not too warm- Good actually.

Volume/Consistency: Thin, cutting, sandy and powdery at the same time.

Crema: Thin, not lasting, died when I was drinking it.

Odor: What? Nope!

Taste: Flat, a bit rancid, not terribly, but rancid enough like a Roman coffee. It was flat and not round or flavorful. But I must admit that after savoring it a bit, I could taste the nutty finish to it. Voila, some taste!

Overall: Not colorful, not bad, nor offensive, just boring. Nothing that I could write home about. Especially since about a block away there’s a spectacular café (the Casa Manfredi… of course!).

The setup: To serve this cup o javaness they had a Faema E78, a workhorse that is not necessarily pretty, and of course, the Faema grinder which wasn’t that old and which isn’t necessarily pretty either. The coffee being served was Miami Caffè, a local Roman roaster that I’ve experienced very cafes from.

And look what they had here. A crema di caffè! It looked totally unused, what tourist knows what the hell this is??? Sad because there’s fewer and fewer cafes that are offering this. I couldn’t gut arguing again with the cashier to buy another espresso in order to have it with this, as it is indeed a delicacy to have espresso al crema di caffè…. Would be worth coming in here just to give this a go.