CHROMATIC Café — Restaurant in Barcelona

Small coffee, very cosy, friendly staff, etc. but unfortunately the espressos we had were awful. I asked for extraction settings and the ratio was a bit unbalanced and low coffee grammage in, but shouldn't be the main cause (17g IN, 30g OUT, 31sec). I reckon the problem came from a mistaken roast batch from the barcelonian roaster they work with. This roaster is one of those roasters who just omniroast, meaning they roast the same roasting profiles for espresso and soft brews (V60, Chemex, etc.), so baristas need to be very skilled to get good extractions whatever method is used. Unfortunately, the baristas here lack training and experience to recognize there is a problem in their extractions and where is/are the possible causes. I asked why the espresso protocol and they responded they do what the roaster tell them to do 😑 So, there is no criteria, but the worst thing is they work with a coffee roaster that does not support his customers to develop their own skills 👎🏻 If this was my business, I would stop working with this roaster and I would look for a more attentive and proactive roasting partner. In the meantime, we won't come back and we are very sorry because they are close to our home and the spot is beautiful. My advice: Get training, real training. Then, get rid of this roaster. Omniroast will never allow perfect coffee extractions and whoever the roaster tells you...

Very cute place and it’s great to have another speciality coffee in Grácia. The decor is inviting, nice background music and great magazines to peruse while sipping your coffee.

Now to the coffee itself - I had a cortado and it was incredibly weak and served in an espresso cup. It was a single shot. I’m used to double shot cortados from other speciality cafes so this was unfortunate. I might try and come again to have the double shot cortado and see if the intensity and quality of flavor is right for me.

Update: came back today for a double cortado. The good news - the espresso itself is very good. The downside - they only have espresso size cups, so a cortado with a double shot becomes a macchiato - there’s very little room for milk. Would be great to have slightly larger cups for the cortados and then it can be perfect.

Also tried the yoghurt red fruits cake and was somewhat underwhelmed. So - if you’re in the area, by all means pop by for your caffeine. But I wouldn’t make the effort to come here for the coffee...

Totally underwhelmed by the coffee at this homey shop next to Casa Vicens. A Galician friend and I just stepped out for a coffee at Slow Mov below Gala Placidia. We looked at each other and said, now this is a party that we wish to attend. But what we were served at Chromatic last week was below average and uninspired. The only positive I can say about our visit is that Chromatic is a lovely spot to duck in when it's 40C in July or August but apart from that you couldn't pay...