STELLA RUSCHENA CAFFÈ, VIA FLAMINIA 231, 00196 ROMA

Rating: Poor, very bitter-rancid Roman coffee

I was coming on my way back from the Due Fontane Caffè with its great Ditta Artigianale coffee when I see this monolithic chunk of stone and glass. I thought, is it really a café? Well, the name said so. I broke the seal of its doors and walked into a mid 1970s gold-frosted aluminum railing, light marble countertops and wood paneled concoction that was very retry and very cool. But, I’ve come to learn that when you have that combination, the machine and the coffee being served out of it, is usually of the same mindset and probably, roasted in that same era. The funny thing in this locale was that it was frequented by Italians, all Italians, that were in their late 50s to mid 60s and dressed kind of swanky. Here in Italy everybody devours everybody with their eyes and a lady that stood looking at me quite some time next too me finally ordered her coffee. After she got it, she said very much out loud, as she poured in her 4th spoonful of sugar that the coffee was a ‘bitter’ this morning…. Oh God I thought!

So this is what I got:

Presentation: Yeah, Danesi. It still doesn’t have the ring of something exciting as Ducati, or whatever, but I said, well, let’s march forward. The cup was clean, the spoon kind of clunky but enough to get to the bottom of this barrel of tar. And yup, no water given to help pass it down.

Temperature of Cup: Wow, good temperature. I’m happy on this point.

Quantity: Short shot, a good point again.

Temperature: Voila! Again, good temperature of coffee, we’re on a roll and I might have preemptively misjudged this place!

Volume/Consistency: Ahh… so thin, so runny, razor sharp edges, cut my mouth.

Crema: It was thin, only slightly over-extracted, but started to die as I waited my 1 minute to start drinking the coffee.

Odor: Hm… rancid sharp smell rising out of the cup, not a good sign…

Taste: Yup, quite bad. It was pure tar-rancidness. Not acidic, but simply rancid and bitter-sharp overload.

Overall: I had two sips of this and just couldn’t stomach the idea of trying to finish it, why? Why ruin my life with such a terrible coffee? I didn’t, and went to pay and left.

The setup: They had a Danesi Caffè espresso machine branded thing, and the coffee was of course Danesi Caffè. This is a local roaster that is usually uber-bitter and sharp. Some folk like it, go figure. I haven’t had good coffee from them yet.