LUX BAR CAFFÈ, VIALE DELL'OCEANO INDIANO 86-98, 00144 ROMA

Rating: Standard, mid to lower end Roman coffee

On a scantly food treaded avenue in the EUR area of Rome, south and west and away from the hoards of tourists, you have a somewhat abandoned looking area, and there, in the midst of it is this Lux Bar Caffè. It’s in a newer building and it’s got a sleek façade. It’s a whole 7-story building front so very large and spacious. Its got lots of tables outside and inside. It’s got the sleek black, grey and white décor of Rome’s definition of clean and business like. It’s decent and here and there you have signs of more pedestrian aesthetic with homeprinted stickers announcing special drinks they offer and whatnot. It was very lively, full of people, mostly all in business attire (there’s gotta be some corporate whatnot around these parts, that’s what EUR is all about). There were two barista manning one machine, although there were two espresso machines. There for a total of six group heads. Cool!

This is what I got served:

Presentation: A nice small cup, I like these cups, and what I liked was that it had the name of the bar on it. Also, if you look on the right of the logo, it’s got at “99”, so we can assume that the place has been around since then, nice! All in order, clean, to the point. Spoon had a very large lobe and I don’t think it would have reached the bottom of the cup.

Temperature of Cup: Very good temperature, we’re off to a decent start.

Quantity: Very short shot, very good, and the size of an espresso in Rome.

Temperature: Also very good.

Volume/Consistency: Hmm. Thin, thinner than the size led on. It was an espresso cranked out very quickly and without weighing the coffee, nor flushing the group head. It was thin and light, and a bit to watery for my taste. Oddly, there was a powdery competing texture in there that was the crema.

Crema: That’s why I was surprised, the crema was very dark and lasted for about 2 minutes then it started to die out. It was very cakey, and grainy and I think it added that particular tone to the espresso consistency.

Odor: Very dark roasted coffee smell. I’ll take it!

Taste: It was a very bitter almost rancid pungently strong start. I was thin and flat in taste and didn’t offer much of flavor in my mouth to calm me down or to get me distracted from the taste moving towards rancid. The after taste was simply a bitter punchy taste. Not very complex, quite simple.

Overall: It was a mid to lower end Roman coffee. Not very high in nice coffee oils, and the blend with so much Robusto in it made the coffee seem almost powery bitter to me. However, with some sugar it’s probably a decent brew.

The setup: They had a four group Faema E98 President machine that isn’t pretty but does the job, That was accompanied by a beautiful two group San Remo that I wish was being used! Each machine had grinders of the same brand. The coffee was the downtown Rome-based roaster Ciamei Caffè. I’ve visited their store on various occasions but it’s been under renovation for the last year… so we’ll have to wait for a report on it.