SATAN’S COFFEE COMPANY, L’ARC DE SANT RAMON DEL CALL 1, 08002 BARCELONA

Rating: Third Wave coffee, in Barcelona, Spain

I had the welcomed opportunity to visit Barcelona very briefly. A place I’ve lived in for many years, and which has a blossoming Third Wave / Specialty coffee scene. I had heard of Satan’s Coffee and the Right Side Coffee roasters that they brew and sell there and was immediately attracted to tasting their quality. What I found was great. The locale in downtown Barcelona is roomy, in a very quiet corner, and had loud south American music booming from it (none of the death metal stuff I assumed would be filling it’s halls when I read the name). The incongruence between the name and the marketing images and the pleasant, NYC like atmosphere and upbeat dance music was well… eclectic, odd, and welcome. They have different plates to try and eat and pastries and the like. So it’s a kitchen and coffee joint much like in Rome. There were two people manning the counter, one getting and serving the food, the other, a younger rasta guy who spoke nearly no Spanish nor Catalan who I guess was imported for his coffee prowess. I asked him what coffee was being brewed, and well it was a while before we were able to communicate. He seemed perplexed at the question. At last the other woman who was working there gave me a straight answer. I guess they were too busy and concentrated to give a damn.

Whatever, after a good 10-15 minutes of waiting for my coffee this is what I got:

Presentation: Yeah, darn large super-bowl cup. This is what we get in the US, this is what Satan’s is serving. A soup for a cup. Well, it’s multi-purpose for sure. Well, if you think of wine tasting, the cup does help to hone in the scents.

Temperature of Cup: It was quite hot. Hotter than I would have liked. It was borderline too hot.

Quantity: Very long for Roman standards, it was a solid espresso. The barista was weighing his shot so he stopped right when he was approaching the weight he wanted. This is exactly what he was after. However, it was already splattering the end of the shot, I would have cut it a tad shorter.

Temperature: Great temperature. Slightly lower than the cup, brewed at the temperature that the head-barista set on this La Marzocco machine.

Volume/Consistency: Smooth, light, elastic, silky in the finest sense without loosing the feeling of a light oil coating your mouth. Absolutely positive.

Crema: Look at it. Light, wispy, and fleeting. It didn’t add much to the drinking experience, there was a bit of bubbles and thin tiger striping, but that’s what an Arabica roasted very lightly will give you. We’re not in Rome here… remember!

Odor: Ahh so fruity! Light scents of white florals, really so wonderful!

Taste: Here’s the proof in the pudding. It was very good. There was no acidic punch as you usually get in lighter roasts. It was very smooth. Fruity notes of citrus and grapefruit were apparent to my pallet, and then the tasted opened to currants and finally with butterscotch finish. So very nice!

Overall: It was really a great espresso. I sat there for a good 10 minutes enjoying every sip of this coffee. I waited for the espresso to cool down and this let its flavor change to a lemon-like tea flavor. Very nice. Simply excellent, and nothing as complex as this in Rome unfortunately…

The setup: Check it out for your self. A La Marzocco, of course… the grinder was an on demand Compak Master model. The barista was doing everything exactly by the book. He weighed the coffee grinds even though he was using a on demand programmed grinder. He then flushed group on this electronic thermally controlled group head Marzocco, and then weighed the espresso as it poured. No BS here an it was a great espresso. Funny to note that the second time I came to this place, the other barista who was previously manning the cashier didn't weigh the espresso, and eyeballed it as it came out. And the effect was noticeable... a less than superb espresso...

The coffee was provided from Right Side Coffee, roasting out of Castelldefels, a seaside town 20 minutes south of Barcelona. They were roasting the line called: El Rincón. It is a mix of washed Bourbon and Caturra, from Huehuetenango, Guatemala. This is the ‘take home’ bag, usually 11 Euro for 250g. If you buy directly from Right Side Coffee