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Rating: Standard, mid-range Roman coffee
The Barcibo & Enoteca Caffè (that is café, food and wine shop) is the other variant of cafes. Where on one end you have a 7-11 convenience store cum café bar, and the other, is the primarily coffee and small dish restaurant locale. I’ve seen the wine shop feature being more and more popular these days. It’s a good sign, but somehow the ‘know how’ of different wine varieties, tastes and character, never seems to translate to the same knowledge of coffee. That’s a pity. But sooner or later things will change, and for the better. This place has a very small indoor locale, literally something like 4 meters wide by 8 long, but it has a very large outdoor covered terrace that is really nicely equipped. When I walked in the interior bar was filled with folk that seemed to be a mix of regulars, friends and whatnot of the café. It was a good vibe and I got treated really well.
This is what I got:
Presentation: Yup, it seems that Marziali café has changed their cups. No longer are they going with the strong back, red and white logo, now everywhere that serves them we get this pale blue-gray logo, and a cup that is OK, but not my favorite. Its memorable, and I guess that’s what they want. The spoon was good and no water offered even though it was around 7pm.
Temperature of Cup: I must say that it was so darn hot I had to wait, and since it’s almost summer now, I had to wait quite a long time for the temperature to drop to the point of being able to hold it in my hands comfortably.
Quantity: Short shot, nice.
Temperature: Well, even after 5 minutes, the coffee inside the cup was still rather warm, and it was actually decent. I felt I could taste all the different aspects of its composition.
Volume/Consistency: Silky, now that I could taste it well, it opened up like a decent wine. It was very heavy, thickish and creamy coffee. I generally like this, but here it was bit on the heavy side. Could have been a bit, and I do mean, just a bit longer.
Crema: The crema was dark, thin, and uniform, and while it stood there staring at me for a good 5 minutes while I waited for the drink to cool down, as soon as I had my first sip, it all but got scared and scattered to the sides of the cup.
Odor: Dark roasted char-burned beans, but hey, it’s something!
Taste: It was very deeply bitter all up front, makes you recant from the cup it was so strong. But the silkiness of the coffee made it a soft kick in the mouth. It had no traces of rancidness, which is positive in this drink (as with this roaster it tends to go there quickly). I felt the water was clean, and the taste transparent and uniformly flat, as is most roman coffee. The dark-bitter taste then had an slightly nutty tangy after taste. Left my mouth tingling. Not something I trust, but it happens with only one or two Roman other roasters. And they’re all ultra dark roasted coffees… maybe some type of additives? I’ve never had it happen with gourmet third wave roasts…
Overall: It was a decent silky and heavy set espresso. Quite decent and I’d go back to it. It’s better than the café just down the street and the folk are very nice here, feels like you’re walking into a party that was waiting for you to arrive. This is a big thing already.
The setup: The machine was a brand new Wega E61 based machine, I didn’t see the grinder as the bar was full of people, but I’m sure it was some type of Mazzer. The coffee was Marziali Caffè, a local roman roaster that puts out very strong, deeply bitter 2nd crack roasted coffee.
Barcibo & Enoteca Caffè
Emma S.R.L.
Via Martana 33-35
00141 Roma