A blonde bean in Rome

A resumé of my blogging in Rome

Travel Guide

Last year at a job interview I met with three IT-guys in the process of establishing a new kind of media company. During the interview they commented on my blog that they apparently had read and pointed out something that I quite hadn´t realized before - that my blog was unique in the sense that there are many blogs about coffee and Rome, but no one have ever before been so consistent in writing about the many bars of Rome.

Even though this blog is more of a hobby-project for me, their compliments and specific remarks made me realize I had, by chance, made something unique.

If you are a poet, writer, or a person who enjoys to put your thought into writings - why not try starting a blog? It is quite an interesting journey. Just to mention a few nice experiences:

I was contacted by Melissa Braverman from N.Y. who runs her own famous blog - on dating. She was on a dating Blitz in Europe, and as she was searching for information she found my blog and contacted me to see if we could meet up. You can read about it here: Melissas dating blitz in Rome
She didn´t even like coffee, but I´m happy that she contacted me so that I had the opportunity to meet this special courageous, creative lady.

Last year I was invited to write for The Global Phoenix about how to start a blog - it took quite some research and hard work to make it an article as I had never had that particular experience before. You can read about it here: The Global Phoenix

The interesting thing about having your own blog is that you do meet a lot of interesting people, you learn and you grow through the experience it encompasses.

Not being a mother tongue English person, I have to admit I was terrified in the beginning of making mistakes in grammar and spelling, but later I decided to not let it intimidate me and keep on focusing on new and interesting ways of writing about coffee and the culture around it, especially what made me love having a coffee in Italy.

There are several blogs following me, which is really a nice thing to know and it spurs you on also in a way to keep the blog alive. These are a few of those blogs:

Italy Tutto

Roma-O-Matic

Blog Lovin

And of course, I have to mention one blog in particular that two years in a row gave me their award being one of their favourite blogs - 2011 and 2012.
Travel Avenue

Many will want to help you in contributing with ideas to your blog. It is a perfect topic to talk about as an ice-breaker when you meet new people. There are many more things I could tell you about the benefits of having your own little space in the blog-universe, but instead I will leave you here - so that you can contemplate and get yourself started to discover it for yourself. It is worth it!

Where to sit and plan your future blog:

Caffè Rosati
Address: Piazza del Popolo 5A
Rome
Italy
Phone number: +39 06 322 58 59

Change of Season, Reason and Coffee

Travel Guide

I have reached a point where I feel like Ava Gardner. The Deseret News, March 16, 1954 reports: "Ava Gardner tells Frank Sinatra she is tired of living in Rome."

This is a beautiful, magical place in so many ways and I don´t regret living here for 6 years. I don´t know what reasons Ava had to leave this bustling city but I have grown tired of the busy road outside my bedroom 24/7, the regular and frequent strikes on public transportation and other bureucratic difficulties that takes forever to solve and instead of feeling frustrated about it I decided it was time for a change of scene.

I mentioned in an earlier blog entry that my favorite part of the year is the autumn. I also mentioned that most of the biggest projects or changes in my life usually takes place in this period, so whenever september comes I can't help but wonder if something new will be starting off from that time.

September last year I didn´t have to wonder as I had decided it was time to change, a decision made after some extensive travelling throughout the summer.   

It is far easier to leave the country than to enter it - I only had to give notice for my rented room, close my bank account and visit two different municipal offices to register my exit. Easy as that! I was the only one there to ask to leave the country, it all took 10 minutes and my papers were done.

Inside the municipality office in the center, we celebrated the final step with having a coffee in their bar. They had a happy barista and excellent coffee to cover up for maybe a bit dated interior decorations.

Where to add a smooth good-bye and thank you Italy for your years in Italy:

Antico Ristoro Bar
Address: 50, Via Luigi Petroselli
Roma
Italy 

Sweet encounter over a coffee

Travel Guide

So do you prefer a dark or light roast?

The basic knowledge of how the roasting of the coffee bean is essential if you want to know how to control or demand what will be served in your cup.

Espresso is nothing else than a coffee beverage where the name implies the brewing method and defining “the best” espresso depends, from my point of view, just on your personal preference.

Several steps are included in roasting the beans and the final outcome - if it is a dark or light roast, will enhance the aromas and flavours differently. In the process of roasting, balance is needed as it is easy to lose the natural sweetness and aromas if you overdo the roast. Adding sugar or milk to your coffee serves only as a “band-aid” to make up for what was lost in the roasting. If you prefer an espresso based drink rather than a straight espresso, it can be because you in the past experienced a coffee derived from a roast that was overly dark. A good roast should be possible to drink as it is, without any additions so that you can define the full range of flavors and how they balance each other.

The interesting thing is that a dark roast does not mean that the coffee is stronger than a light roast, just that it will have a more bittersweet flavour. The strength depends rather on how much coffee versus water is used in the brewing process. Simply put: less water equals stronger coffee even though the roast is light.

When in Rome you will notice quite soon that every bar, together with its own name, bears the name of roasting house. Bring a friend try the different brands of roasting and find the one that is right for you.

To carry out this task I would suggest the following bar as a starting point: 

Caffé di Marzio
Address: Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere 15
00153 Rome
Italy
Phone: +39 06 5816095‎

Here you can order as many coffees as you like, making and compare notes while sitting comfortably either inside or outside with a beautiful view over the piazza.

Enjoy!

 

 

How to become a coffee connaisseur

Travel Guide

Many friends of mine gather together occasionally in small groups to enjoy wine or whiskey tasting. In recent years, maybe more commonly seen in exhibitions or on Television  cooking programs, olive oil tasting has come into fashion. If you however are a fan of coffee - why not introduce something new and slightly different? Invite your friends over to taste and learn more about coffee.

Taking time to engage your senses in exploring various kinds of food and beverages is not only a pleasure but also, you could say, a travel to your inner universe. Sharing your inner discoveries together with your friends creates a bond when you learn together which will double the excitement and enhance the overall experience. True, taking time to define what is it that I am tasting is an art, but the good thing is that anyone can learn it.

As mentioned in one of my earlier posts (The fingerprint of coffee), tasting coffee  and tasting wine has similarites. Both has a protocol or a procedure to follow and a terminology which will help you to identify or, in this case, filter out what the main flavors are and what type of roast will release the most possible aromas from the coffee bean into your brew.

An increasing number of coffee shops today offer several types of roasted beans that you can buy by the hecto or kilo. Knowing your preference you could start buying different beans and start mixing until you have found the right blend for you.

The terminology for tasting coffee is called "cupping" and today I will only mention the terms used and save the method of cupping for my next post.

Knowing how to describe what you are tasting is very important. Take a couple of days and try to drink your coffee without sugar to find what flavours you can detect when you taste it.

Fragrance: Smell the coffee grinds.

Aroma:  Now smell your coffee.

Body: How does it feel in your mouth? Does it feel thin, thick or any other texture?

Rich: Here we go beyond body and aroma, what else does the coffee feel like - did the aroma and flavour match the overall experience?

Mellow: the coffee is balanced, full-bodied (like a good wine) and is not harsh.

Acidity: Does it feel acid, sour?

Now, off you go, take notes for a couple of days and see how your taste buds will awake and open up to new experiences that you may have ignored until now.

If you are in Rome, here is a place where my coffee tasted like dark chocolate and was well balanced. Try to see if you can find better ways of describing it:

Le Scalette - Bar - Enoteca, Grapperia
Address: Via Nomentana, 585
Roma
Phone Number: +39 349 059 78 51
Italy

 

Coffee and The importance of Attitude and Accessories

Travel Guide

Long before relocating to Rome, I had had the chance to enjoy the country and the city several times on my business trips to our office outside Rome, in Tivoli. Most of it was work and food, of course. Later, when I had become resident, I also had to understand better the culture and people around me, which was not always easy to start with.

I recall a British colleague, married to a woman from Milan who gave me a clue. He said: With the Italians, it is all about Attitude and Accessories. The attitude I guess can be translated into the quote: “All the world’s a stage. And all the Italians are all on it”. As for the accessories, you all know that the Gucci, Armani, Versace, Guess etc. brands are all over any Italian worthy his name.

This is of course highly applicable on the baristas - both in terms of attitude as well as accessories.

A good barista does not only know how to make that perfect espresso, but also know how to chat up the clients as well as being well-dressed will be a powerful asset to his employer. Well, to be honest, Italians are well-dressed at all times.

At the cross section of Piazza Crati and Via Nemorense is a bar that fully lives up to everything an Italian bar can offer in terms of Attitude and Accessories. The baristas are elegantly dressed with a vest and bow-tie, courteous and friendly, serves an excellent coffee to please your palate.

If it is warm enough, why not enjoy your coffee outside at one of their tables? This will give you a perfect opportunity to study and learn all about Italian Attitude and Accessories.

Where to get educated:
Bar & Enoteca Arcioni Dolcezze
Centro Vini Arcioni S.R.L
Address: Via Crati 22/25
Roma
Italy
Phone number: +39 06 86206616

 

 

Coffee on fast feet

Travel Guide

In 1615 a merchant of Venice wrote: “The Turks have a drink of black color....I will bring some with me...to the Italians” thus introducing coffee to Italy and Europe. I will be forever grateful!

In Asolo, close to Treviso and Bassano di Grappa and not too far away from Venice, the entrance point for coffee, a friend of mine, Maria Grazia Bravi invited me and some friends one grey, foggy week-end in November to her exhibition.

We searched out the best bar obviously in the little village which was easy as it was the central point,  located at a small piazza where we gathered for our morning and afternoon coffee throughout our week end.

The bar was not only serving excellent coffee, it turned out to be famous too for their waitress that won a  competion for being the fastest waitress in Italy.

Feel the draft as she passes by to serve the customers at:

Caffe' Centrale
Address: Via Roma, 72
31011 Asolo
Treviso
Italy
Phone number: +39 0423 952141 ‎

A Black coffee and Solstice - the light in the end of the tunnel

How many gave a thought about the solstice 22nd of December? Early this morning, 05.30 am the sun came to an halt before reversing its direction. During solstice places on the Arctic Circle will see the Sun just on the horizon during midnight and the Antarctic Circle will see the Sun just on the horizon during midday.

Have you yet noticed the difference? We have reached the point when the days are becoming longer but at the moment are hardly noticeable as the first couple of days the changes is just 30 arcseconds per day (according to Wikipedia).

Nevertheless - just knowing that from today and onwards we are heading toward summer again is so envigorating that it gives me all the energy I need to cope with the cold months that remains before the days finally are longer than the nights and the sun warms up the air and warms my face again.

Until then, I cling to my favorite past-time that soothes my soul - I walk into a bar, I order my coffee watching people passing by whilst philosofical and sentimental thoughts runs through my brain.

Bar Il Delfino
Address: Via Cardinale Oreglia 24
00164 Roma
Phone number: 06 897 181 14