BARICENTRO DEL GUSTO CAFFÈ, VIA SILVESTRO GHERARDI 90-94, 00146 ROMA

Rating: Standard, mid to upper range Roman coffee

The Baricentro dal Gusto Caffè is still in this chock-full of café neighborhood East of the Viale G. Marconi. It’s on a quiet part of the neighborhood. And the place looks new, or recently opened. It’s all white clad, and had a barista chock-full of tattooes, and 1980s punk-rock music blaring. The barista who took my order and served my coffee was very courteous and seemed to be proud of keeping the place clean and open. I think he was the owner by the way folk came up to him and started talking to him about stuff going on in the neighborhood. But who knows.

This is what I got served:

Presentation: Yup, Palombini’s got a mafia grip on this part of town. The cup was the one I find amusing, it was nicely splattered from an over extracted espresso. Water was served immediately. So far, so good.

Temperature of Cup: It was good, not too hot, all in order, bravo!

Quantity: It was a shortish shot- a bit over an ounce (30ml) espresso, at least this is what it felt like.

Temperature: It was good, actually could taste the whole espresso without being burnt, nor was it cold. Very good!

Volume/Consistency: It was very smooth, rich, chocolaty in body and oily. Great so far.

Crema: It wasn’t that exciting. It was over extracted from just looking at it, and some bubbles and some splatters. It wasn’t very persistent, and didn’t seem to add much to the experience of the espresso.

Odor: Dark chocolaty smell, great! A first for Palombini.

Taste: It was decent. Not super bitter, not uber pungent. It start to move quickly towards a roasted nut taste and then open to a bitter sweet chocolaty taste. It was actually really decent!

Overall: Although I didn't finish this espresso as I simply didn't feel like it, It was a very good solid mid to upper range Roman coffee. I was pleasantly surprised by the taste notes which opened up in this cup. It’s by far the best espresso in this part of the area, and the people were very happy and jovial, a total plus for this quite toned down area.

The setup: They had a beautiful Astoria espresso machine, white-clad what else! An Astoria black grinder, and the coffee was the Roman-based roaster Palombini Caffè. This is one of the better Palombini shots I’ve had here in Rome. Bravo!