PICCAROZZI CAFFÈ, PIAZZA DELLA REPUBBLICA 62-63, 00185 ROMA

Rating: Standard, mid to low-end Roman coffee

The Piccazzori Caffè is on the western side of the Piazza della Reppublica. It’s about two locales worth long, and has lost of interior and exterior space in the galleria area. Once inside you find lots of locals, at least I heard all Italian and mostly people from the offices nearby all dressed up tidy and neat in their chokehold neckties and killer heels. Either way and be sides the stuffy ‘power suits’ it was jovial and fun. I walked in and a barista from behind the massive machine shouts out a ‘and you?’ meaning, ‘what freaking kind of coffee do you want’. A simple coffee was all.

This is what he served me:

Presentation: It was a white cup, with an odd sharp little handle. It was a bit thin, and I liked that. It was a bit stout and clean, and all in order. No water was served, and had I been comfortable with shouting out for it, I’m sure it would have been given. The spoon was simple and did its job, had I used it.

Temperature of Cup: It was good, warm, not scalding, and taken from the top of the machine.

Quantity: It was a rather long espresso, the cup was a larger than normal espresso cups and thinner, so more room for java.

Temperature: It was nice, warm, but I could taste the whole espresso. It was brewed in the lower spectrum, but still above 90 celcius.

Volume/Consistency: It was really watery, thin, runny, not oily, and not complex nor rich. It was light if you’d like!

Crema: The crema was like looking at what a primeval Italian landscape, with all these damned earthquakes happening would probably have looked like. It was bumpy, with lots of earth tones and a ying-yang of dark and light colored brown showing nice over extraction… ugh. And it was bubbly and looked like a person who put on too much foundation on their pimpled face.

Odor: Dark very dark roasted scent! I’ll take it, even if it made me tremble.

Taste: It was a thin, piercing bitterness that was at the same time, after the initial piercing action, like a feeble needle. Once in, you forget that it’s supposed to do damage. It kind of wimped out and the rest of the drink was rather wet, thin and stringy.

Overall: It wasn’t anything that I’d particularly go back to, but it wasn’t really offensive. With sugar I’m sure it would have been decent, no bite and what not. But as it was, it was a mid to more like a lower-end Roman coffee.

The setup: They had a very impressive Wega espresso machine. I couldn’t see the griner, but the coffee they were serving was Torrefazione Betty Caffè. A new one for me, and it’s located in south east Rome along the Tuscolana.