NATURISTA BAR CAFFÈ, VIA TORINO 35, 00185 ROMA

Rating: Standard, mid-range Roman coffee

The Il Naturista Bar Caffè is a small corner joint that doubles up as a fresh juice place (hence then name), but I feel from the looks of it, it’s a rather ‘modern’ addition to the locale. A café bar is more what it is, and what it feels like. Nothing fancy in the interior, and the barista, a guy that was constantly on the phone with his daughter about some problem or another, was a serious faced guy. Polite, but sweating it during the whole conversation. That’s what it’s like here in Rome, people wear their emotions on their sleeve, and well… they’re lots of emotion to go around here.

This is what I got served:

Presentation: Yup, one of these cups. It was clean, spoon was slightly oversized for the cup but still well able to get to the bottom and stir sugar if you’re into that. No water was offered.

Temperature of Cup: Good temperature of cup.

Quantity: It was a short shot in this cup. This cup has a built in ‘level’ (you can barely make it out if you see) that tells the barista when to stop. This was below this and that was good.

Temperature: It was a bit hotter than the cup, which is good, but it wasn’t boiling at all. It was well within decent brewing temperature.

Volume/Consistency: It was very silky and smooth in consistency, almost creamy. It really coated my entire mouth and was a very pleasant full-bodied drink.

Crema: Moving from pitch black like brown to lighter brown. It wasn’t over extracted but you could tell that he packed some serious coffee into the porta filter and that the coffee didn’t have much to offer.

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

Taste: It was a sharp bitter explosive start that then became very muted and flat. I tried to seek out any type of complex flavor, but simply couldn’t find anything. Neither was it buttery or chocolaty as most of these Roman drinks of better quality can be. It had a dry finish with a bitterness that bordered on rancidness.

Overall: It was OK. It wasn’t a poor drink, it was very robust stout and punchy. The fact that it had a very good consistency places it well in the mid-range Roman coffee types. It was well prepared, delivered, and held its own.

The setup: They had a nice Astoria that I couldn’t really photograph because the place was very small, and I didn’t want to sound any alarms to the owner who was already too stressed. When I take photos, people either think I’m an inspector or I’m here to document something so that I can steal later on from them.. so it’s adelicate subject! The grinder was also an Astoria. The coffee is Negresco Caffè, a Roman based roaster that does uber dark espresso. I’ve has some really top traditional Italian espresso from them, so I can safely say this wasn’t their best representation.