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Rating: Standard, solid mid to upper range Roman coffee
I’m not entirely sure what the deal with the Trust 900 Bar Caffè is. That is, if it’s under the same ownership as just a few months ago. If you look at their website, it looks like a ‘dive bar/ dance club café’. Quite a lot for this ultra small locale. And you can even see a different espresso machine (a nice new Wega), and now you have a classic Astoria. Whatever the story is, a friend that was visiting Rome tipped me off to it’s presence (I had passed by a few weeks ago while in Trastevere without noticing it’s existence) and so I went in. I was greeted by a tall barista that was very kind and with impeccable etiquette. He was very attentive and was also very attentive to the clientele. A regular had ordered coffee and then she got a phone call, he had just made a coffee for her, but then when he saw she left, he took her coffee, threw it away, and waited for her to come back to make a new one so that it would be at the right temperature. I know this because a waitress that walked in who was helping him behind the counter asked ‘why did you throw her coffee away’, and thus he explained this to her. Nice touch, and consideration, and again, confirms how Romans like their coffee: VERY HOT!
This is what I got after confirming I was after a simple coffee:
Presentation: Yup, my favorite cup stile. Short, fluted outwards, and to the point. I was happy even to see the brand. The spoon was to measure, and the cup clean and tidy. I got a very nice small cup of sparkling water served immediately, without having asked. You can see the shadow on the upper right hand corner.
Temperature of Cup: And yes, the cup was warm, but not scalding. It was good to the touch almost blending with my fingertips.
Quantity: Short, concise, not ristretto, but good.
Temperature: It was almost the same as the cup. It was good, blending into the temperature of the ceramic, felt great.
Volume/Consistency: It was oily, thickish but not tar. It immediately entered the mouth and coated everything with a deep taste of oily creamy coffee. It was pleasant.
Crema: Persistent, thickish, and grainy. A bit over-extracted as you can see, but the barista cut it off just as it was going to be overboard.
Odor: Dark roasted coffee, this is a plus, anywhere, even if it’s not flowers or berries that we’re smelling.
Taste: Punchy bitterness all up front as I expect. It was not rancid, and the thickness of it made the bitter opening a bit softer in perception. It was flat in taste, as most roman coffee is, and the finish was decent because of the oiliness of the coffee.
Overall: It was very decent, well made, controlled, and solid mid to upper range. I would have said this was better if the taste was more complex, richer, and maybe sweeter.
The setup: They had a beautiful Astoria Perla espresso machine, the grinder was also an Astoria-Mazzer. The coffee is the Piramide area Roman Based roaster Tintori Caffè. This is a good representation of their stuff, the best I’ve had was near Piramide itself at the Café du Parc.
Trust 900 Bar Caffè
Bar Gastronomia De. Mi SRL
Via Cesare Pascarella 9
00153 Roma
Tel. 06 581 3485