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Rating: Standard, low-end Roman coffee
The small kiosk, Casina Esedra Caffè, sits just north west of Termini station. It’s a small kiosk with an adjunct seating area that’s covered by a makeshift tent. When I walked in there were the usual tourists struggling to communicate with the barista in English. It wasn’t the tourist’s who couldn’t communicate, but the barista. Either way, when I ordered my coffee in my fake Italian, he seemed to ease up and started talking about the recent earthquakes. Since I’m from California, yeah, I know a little about these stupid natural events. Either way, the barista was a very nice extremely soft spoken guy who seemed t exude a relaxed air about him that was very nice. From earthquakes we went on to talk about life in general, as always happens when you talk shop at a bar.
This is what he served me:
Presentation: A thickish, bowl-like cup, with a small logo. It had a brand of coffee, Pinci, that is Roman, and yet it wasn’t the coffee being served. All was in order. Water came to me after I asked.
Temperature of Cup: It was a very hot cup, I took the opportunity to talk to the barista while the cup cooled.
Quantity: It was a solid Roman espresso, a ristretto by USA terms, but here it was abundant.
Temperature: The coffee was not as hot as the cup. I could really feel the difference between the boiling cup and the tepid espresso. At least the espresso won’t be char-brewed!
Volume/Consistency: It was thin, light, runny, and seemed over extracted, or better, not enough coffee in the porta filter for the setup they had.
Crema: It was a two-toned, seemed like a lava whirpool, and persistent for about half of the drink and then started to give way as I drank. Pretty normal behavior, and it was a bit thick, frothy, and porous.
Odor: Very dark roasted smell, almost astringent. I’ll take what I get!
Taste: It was very bitter start, crescendoing to a near rancid taste that was thin, piercing and then quite flat. It left a to sharp taste in my mouth after I finished it.
Overall: It was normal, low-end Roman coffee. The water was way better than the coffee, and the water, surprisingly, from the tap! Ahh the calcium rich waters of Rome… !
The setup: They had a Royal Espresso machine, a nice Anfim grinder that I love, and then, of course Classico Caffè Circi. This is the usual setup with this brand of coffee. Circi is a Roman based roaster that does uber dry-dark roasted coffee. I’ve had really good and really bad coffee of theirs, so it’s a real gamble every time you walk into a bar that serves this coffee.
Casina Esedra Caffè
Dionisi Gentileschi SRLS
Via Vittorio Emanuele Orlando S/N
00185 Roma
Tel. 06 488 3ß96