DEI FUMETTI BAR CAFFÈ, VIA RINALDO D'AMI 6, 00127 ROMA

REGNO DEL CORNETTO CAFFÈ, VIA NOMENTANA 879, 00137 ROMA

FIRENZE CAFFÈ, VIA FIRENZE 33, 00185 ROMA

ANTICO CAFFÈ VIGNOLA, VIALE DEL VIGNOLA 49-51, 00196 ROMA

Rating: Poor, quite bad Roman coffee

Well… what a week this has been. Not really great coffee, and this well, isn’t an exception. The Antico Caffè Vignola in the Flaminio neighborhood is quite large. It’s got lots of tables outside, and inside it’s divided in an ice cream parlor, a semi restaurant and a café on the left most end of the place. I walked in, and a young and busy barista finishing her shift got my order. The locale seems to always be filled with locals who don’t have much to do during work hours, as each time I’ve passed by here, there’s always some souls inhabiting it’s exterior and interior. The staff is friendly enough, if not in a very streetwise Romanaccio attitude. Which I don’t think is a bad thing.

Well… the barista squirted out this concoction and this is what I got:

Presentation: Clean cup, a heaping full large glass of water served immediately without asking, and the spoon was a bit gritty, but since I don’t use it, all is fair here.

Temperature of Cup: Yup, super hot cup. It was white-hot…

Quantity: Very short shot, it was amusing, because it was really hidden in there at the bottom of the cup.

Temperature: Yup, super hot as well.

Volume/Consistency: It was very runny, I was very surprised it could be so light in such a small quantity. However, being light it felt also very chalky and powdery.

Crema: It was thick, multi-colored, and as you can see, somewhat over-extracted. It looked cakey, creamy, and foamy.

Odor: Dark –uber-dark roasted coffee smell.

Taste: Yeah, rancid, uber-rancid, made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up straight out! It was just terribly rancid and metallic tasting. I had only two sips, I just couldn’t bother with it anymore.

Overall: Pretty bad I will say, enough to not drink it, and not bother at all with it. Maybe if I had gotten a person who wasn’t finishing their shift just as I got there it would have been better.

The setup: They had a nice E-61 based group head Vibiemme (VBM) espresso machine. The grinder was a vintage looking San Marco, and the coffee was Miami Caffè. Which is a local roman roaster.