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Rating: Standard, mid to lower range Roman coffee
The Firenze Bar Caffè is still hugging the Ministry of Defense building of Rome. It’s got the typical catch all menu of café with everything you can think of that goes with it. That is, a bistro type of thing. None of the ‘coffee only’ attitude of some third wave places in other parts of the world. Well, next to a military station, you need to cut the crap and serve what folks are asking for. When I walked in it was totally empty and the owner was busy polishing his silverware. It took him some minutes to get to me, but he was generally really relaxed and took his time to make the espresso.
This is what I got:
Presentation: A nice small fluted cup of the shape that I like. It had no logo, so things were going good. I was worried that the brand that was outside was indeed what was being served (more about this later). Another interesting thing was that the cup had a deep dark crack running down the left hand part of it. I got a brimming cup of sparkling water served immediately and that was nice.
Temperature of Cup: It was warm, not scalding, we’re on a good roll here. This street seems to serve decent coffee!
Quantity: Very short shot, I’m a happy camper.
Temperature: Good, not scalding, not cold and frigid (boy I wish I could have a decent cold brew here in Italy!). But good nonetheless.
Volume/Consistency: It was smooth, silky and rich, another creamy espresso from this street with very decent cafes. It seems the military personnel are quite discreet when it comes to their coffee!
Crema: It looked like the stuff coming out of Mt Vesuvius when it erupted. Yeah, bubbling lava, but it was decent. In the edges. It was persistent and I feel it added to the consistency of the drink. Good stuff.
Odor: No real odor that I could pick up coming from this thing.
Taste: It was a gradual, smooth start, and opened to a very strong but not too heavy bitterness. It then, after the second sip, started to give me some chalky powdery notes of ash that weren’t horrible, but not altogether ‘gourmet’ let us say…
Overall: It was OK, it wasn’t top of the list, nor the best in this little square of cafes that are in these two streets between Via Nazionale and the Via Venti Settembre.
The setup: This brew was done with a Nuova Simonelli espresso machine and a like-branded grinder. The coffee, as you can see from the napkin dispenser, was Marcelleti Caffè. I asked the barista what coffee it was, whether Caffè Bornone (which is a ultra bitter thing), or the what. And he said it’s Marcelletti. He said he picked it exactly for the same reasons that I had noticed. He said he liked it because it was smooth and creamy. He was very proud of having chosen this coffee and really gave me a talk about how he had blind tasted it against Bornone, and that each time he chose the smoothest coffee, he chose Marcelletti. So there’s that for a conscious decision from the bar owner. Who’s to argue with that?? I only found a place holder website for this roaster, but from what I gather, it appears to be an Ancona based roaster. But not entirely sure...
Firenze Caffè
Via Firenze 33
00185 Roma
Tel. 06 9784 3866