In the heart of Bergamo, there is a place that has been helping to rewrite the way we think about coffee for years: Bugan Coffee Lab. A specialty coffee roastery, yes, but also a laboratory of ideas, a training school, and a reference point for anyone who sees coffee not just as a drink, but as a culture to explore.
In this spirit we sat down with MaurizioValli, the soul of the project, to hear how an exceptional coffee comes to life, which values guide their daily work, and how Bugan manages to bring together research, technique, and passion. A conversation that takes the reader behind the scenes of a company that has made quality its mission.
How did Bugan Coffee Lab come about?
Bugan Coffee Lab was founded in 2014 with the goal of bringing coffee culture and quality to Italy. I had been running my own coffee shop since the early 2000s, but I kept receiving commercial offers aimed at promoting brands rather than the product itself. It was a classic Italian bar, like so many others in the country. At a certain point I realized I didn’t even really know what I was selling. That’s when I decided to start training, studying, and competing.
I met someone who wanted to take me to Panama to visit a plantation. I realized there was an entire world we knew nothing about in Italy, so when I came back I decided to start a training school for my colleagues.
Is there a particular story behind the name “Bugan Coffee Lab”?
Absolutely. Beyond coffee, one of my passions is flowers. One of my favorites is the bougainvillea. So I called my first shop “Buganville Caffè”. Then I noticed that customers in Bergamo, for convenience, always shortened it to “Bugan”. From that point on I used the name Bugan for every place I opened, and our logo itself echoes the shape of the bougainvillea.
What are the core values you follow when selecting your beans?
When we choose our coffees, we look for direct contact with the plantation. We practice Direct Trade. So either I, or someone I trust on my behalf, physically visits the farm to see the production firsthand, observe the harvest and the processing methods, and taste their offerings. If we believe a coffee is truly a specialty coffee, we select it. It is essential to know who you are working with, because trust in this field is everything. And that is only possible when a direct relationship is built between producer and roaster.
When it comes to roasting, do you have any particular preferences?
No, and let me explain why. Every coffee tells its own story based on botanical variety, moisture, and terroir. There are many parameters to consider when building a roast profile. Each coffee has its own ideal roast. When a coffee arrives, we do a small test roast as a starting point and taste it. If we all agree the result is good, that’s it; otherwise we adjust some parameters until we manage to bring out the unique characteristics of that specific coffee.
So do you also use dark roast, the darker style?
No, not that. We leave dark roast to all the other roasters, but we don’t want it. When you have a quality product, it would be foolish to burn it just to mask its defects. On the contrary, my job is precisely to bring out the best in the product I have. Unfortunately, the large roasters do not follow this approach. For years, I have been waging my own small war against the big roasters, who sadly do a very poor job in terms of quality.
If quality coffee still hasn’t caught on in Italy, we have to look at the commercial strategies of the big companies that think only in terms of profit, at the expense of the end consumer, who is left with no choice but to buy poor-quality coffee.
Are your training courses aimed only at professionals, or also at home enthusiasts?
Our courses are open to everyone, both professionals and non-professionals. Of course, there are different packages depending on the level of training required. They range from a basic workshop that helps consumers understand what they are drinking, all the way to more advanced packages aimed at professionals who want to improve their craft.
What’s the most common mistake you see in Italy when it comes to coffee, and how would you fix it?
One very common mistake I see consumers make is choosing coffee based on price alone. If a customer comes to me and says that 3 euros for a coffee is too much because somewhere else they can drink three for the same price, it means they have understood nothing about what they are drinking. If a bar sells you a coffee for 1 euro and still needs to make a profit, you certainly can’t expect the raw material to be top quality, quite the opposite.
The same goes for wine, where this idea is now widely accepted. In the coffee world, however, we are still light years away, and to change this mindset we need to keep educating consumers better and better.
Do you have a piece of advice for Nerocaliente readers?
Of course. My advice is simply to look for in-person training courses you can attend in order to get to know coffee more closely. To understand whether what you are drinking is a quality coffee, whether it was extracted properly, whether it was roasted properly. Only in this way can you avoid continuing to drink poor-quality coffee.
Maurizio’s words clearly convey the vision behind Bugan Coffee Lab: a blend of study, experimentation, respect for the supply chain, and a genuine desire to spread coffee culture. Theirs is an ongoing pursuit that starts at the plant and ends in the cup, passing through education, transparency, and awareness.
For Nero Caliente readers, this interview is an invitation to approach coffee with fresh eyes, to discover what really lies behind a well-made espresso, and to be guided by professionals who have turned a passion into a daily form of art.
Did you learn something new about coffee?
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To dive deeper into bugan coffee lab, we recommend the standards published by the Specialty Coffee Association and the background information about Bergamo. If you’d like to keep reading on nerocaliente, also take a look at Juta Specialty Coffee.
