Sant Eustachio
Sant'Eustachio Il Caffè Coffee Shop and Roaster opened in the 1930s in the ancient heart of Rome, in front of the Senato della Repubblica palace, it is just a few steps away from Piazza Navona and the Pantheon.
It was founded in 1938. The mosaic paving and the furnishings are still the original ones. The symbol of Sant'Eustachio Il Caffè is a stag, which recalls the apparition and conversion to Christianity of the previously pagan Eustace. In the piazza of the same name stands the Sant’Eustachio Basilica, a church more than one thousand years old. On the top of the basilica, instead of the traditional cross, there is a white stag with a cross between its horns.
In 1999 the brothers Raimondo and Roberto Ricci began to run Sant’Eustachio Il Caffè. They decided to carry on the tradition, selecting the best coffee varieties and offering a range of products prepared with a legendary secret blend. The Coffee Shop has six tables outdoors, and inside the premises is still functioning a device to roast coffee over wood that goes back to 1948.
The espresso at Sant’Eustachio in Rome is so well-regarded that William Grimes of the New York Times advised those in the US seeking the perfect espresso, “…When the need for a real espresso becomes overpowering, buy a ticket to Rome, tell the taxi driver to head straight for the Sant’Eustachio cafe. The espresso will be perfect. A little expensive, but surely worth the trouble.”
The secret to Sant'Eustachio Il Caffé's premium quality lies in the company's attention to detail, and the prioritization of assuring the quality of the raw materials and the blend. Since 1938 Sant’Eustachio Il Caffè has been carrying on the tradition, always having one priority: quality. Thanks to the use of Sant’Eustachio blend, made with the best Arabica beans, and the special preparation of its Gran Caffè, Sant’Eustachio coffee shop is a daily appointment for the gourmets of this delightful black drink.
The raw coffee is slowly roasted over wood to be tasted in the coffee shop, but it is also possible to buy some to make your own coffee at home. All the coffee varieties, roasted, washed, and selected, are top quality. The freshness and the high quality of the product guarantee an ever-fresh fragrance and a quintessential aroma that cannot be found in the coffees of large-scale retail trade. The carefully selected coffee blends and the accurate artisanal preparation of a high-quality raw material make Sant’Eustachio Coffee a unique and incomparable product.
Sant'Eustachio Il Caffé recognizes that, nowadays, buying a high-quality coffee is not enough: when you buy a product you must also pay attention to the way it is produced, trying to clearly identify and trace its productive and commercial sources. On the basis of this principle, Sant’Eustachio Il Caffè decided to develop a fairer way of purchasing coffee. Some years ago, the roaster began to use fair trade coffee bought from non-profit organizations, like the Italian company Altromercato. Currently, Sant’Eustachio Il Caffè buys fair trade coffee from cooperatives of producers from the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Ethiopia, and Brazil, and also buys special coffee from Galápagos and St. Elena islands.
The Blend of Sant’Eustachio Il Caffè is the result of intense and continuous research and the combination of a variety of coffees of different origins, selected with the aim to maintain the identity of the Sant’Eustachio’s Blend, known and appreciated by coffee lovers all over the world. Coffee is a product that changes dozens of times during the year because of the natural variables that regulate its life (climate, seasons, harvests); the artisan processing at Sant’Eustachio Il Caffè keeps these original characteristics also after the roast.
When the coffee varieties arrive, each coffee is separately roasted on wood logs in the roaster (located in the back of the Coffee Shop and visible to the clients) which dates back to 1948. Then it is “cupped” to check its characteristics and aromas. At this point, the coffees are combined in a percentage purposely studied to create the Blend. The Blend is frequently controlled in order to maintain the right balance of the drink, with the philosophy to offer a sweet and aromatic, but not “intrusive”, coffee. This detailed and loving artisan care, together with the search for high quality, represents the signature of Sant’Eustachio Il Caffè.