Bugan Coffee Lab - EN version

Founded in 2014 by Maurizio and Sonia Valli in Bergamo, Bugan Coffee Lab is a specialty coffee bar featuring a micro-roastery, an academy, and a laboratory. It was the first venture in Italy to offer service, sales, research, and training in specialty coffee, all under one roof. This high-quality coffee, defined by its cultivation, production, and processing methods, with a focus on the environment and farmers’ living conditions, stands apart from commercial coffee for both sustainability and aromatic complexity.

Coffee according to Bugan
​Every specialty coffee has its own soul: not a single standard roast, but one that respects its unique identity and origin

Choosing coffee is a process closely connected to people, regions, and the quality of the coffee beans. Coffee grows in the region known as the Coffee Belt, located between the Tropics, and the beans from these plants are delivered to us for roasting in 60-kg bags. But what’s inside those bags? It could be anything: low-quality, mass-market coffee, or a premium variety, with prices traded on the New York Stock Exchange for Arabica and the London Stock Exchange for Robusta. Simply put, like any other agricultural product, it is a commodity whose quality can range from medium-low to excellent.

At Bugan Coffee Lab, they work exclusively with specialty coffee (defined by the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) as a coffee or coffee experience recognized for its distinctive characteristics, which result in increased value in the marketplace), sourcing green beans carefully selected at origin. Our goal is to ensure the highest quality, starting from the farm where the coffee is grown and dried.

The Selection
​Bugan uses two import methods. The first is direct trade, meaning trade conducted directly with the producer. These contacts often arise from trips to plantations undertaken by the Bugan Team. “We favor small, family-run businesses that cultivate coffee plants without fertilizers or pesticides, often using compost made from coffee husks to promote recycling and zero waste. These plantations are typically found within forests or designed in tree-based planting systems, in the countries best suited to coffee growing,” Maurizio Valli explained. In other cases, Bugan employs a coffee hunter who travels the world in search of unique or valuable lots. Many countries are suitable, including Kenya, Honduras, Peru, Guatemala, and Colombia, but it is undoubtedly Ethiopia, the birthplace of Coffea Arabica, that holds a special place in the Bugan universe. “If I have to think of a country that represents coffee, it is undoubtedly Ethiopia, a beautiful land, rich in flowers and fruits, that stands out for the complexity of its coffees,” Sonia Valli said.

Cupping and Selecting the Right Roast
​Bugan works exclusively with fully traceable single-origin coffees, selected and roasted through a meticulous cupping process designed to bring out the most authentic sensory profile of each origin.
​"We believe in tasting every batch because, as with wine grapes and other agricultural products, each harvest is unique. By exploring different roast profiles, we seek to reveal the true soul of every coffee," Maurizio said.
​In fact, there is no single roast level that works for every coffee. The key is to find the roast that best reveals each coffee’s unique aromatic character.
​Every coffee has an extraction method that highlights its finest qualities. Some excel with filter brewing, others reveal their character best as espresso. In short, each coffee comes with its own “recipe,” crafted in the laboratory. Through exploration and meticulous attention to quality, each cup becomes a one-of-a-kind sensory journey.

Coffee Tasting: A New Way to Experience Coffee
​Not just a bar, but a laboratory where you can immerse yourself in the sensory world of specialty coffees.

Bugan aims to redefine the coffee experience. “We’ve reimagined specialty coffee by developing a vision that takes a different approach from the deeply rooted Italian tradition,” Sonia and Maurizio Valli said. “We know it’s difficult to change long-standing traditions, but we believe in exploring new possibilities. The world is evolving, and we want to expand sensory awareness and deepen people’s understanding of coffee,” Sonia and Maurizio Valli stated.

Bugan doesn’t offer a simple tasting, but a journey of awareness that starts with the careful selection of the supply chain and continues through fermentation, roasting, extraction, and cupping, culminating in an experience you can fully grasp in all its complexity and richness. For this reason, Bugan has chosen not to offer sugar to customers in its stores. “One of our most famous slogans,” the founders noted, “is ‘No sugar in my coffee.’ This choice highlights the difference between a coffee laboratory, focused on education and awareness, and a purely commercial establishment.”

Training Courses
​Maurizio Valli is a certified SCA trainer. The Lab offers a wide range of courses catering to all levels of expertise. In addition to the SCA courses, which explore the entire coffee supply chain, from Introduction to Coffee to Green Coffee, from Roasting to Brewing, and from Barista Skills to Sensory Skills https://bugancoffeelab.com/collections/sca-coffee-skills-program, Bugan also offers certification courses in Cafeteria, Roasting, Brewing, Milk Art, and Tasting and Sensory Analysis https://bugancoffeelab.com/collections/corsi-attestato. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ The tasting workshops https://bugancoffeelab.com/collections/workshop ​ are focused on sensory education and coffee tasting, delving into extraction techniques with moka and filter brewing, including V60 coffee.

Bugan Team: Achieving international success at the Barista Championships
​Bugan Coffee Lab trains a team of professionals to compete in the world's most prestigious specialty coffee competitions.

In addition to its coffee shop, Bugan Coffee is also a Coffee Academy. The Coffee Lab features a cupping room for introductory and tasting courses, as well as a training space where top Italian professionals prepare for international competitions. It all began in 2009, when Maurizio Valli started participating in the Italian Barista Championships organized by the SCA year after year, until he founded the “Bugan Team” in 2020. It is not just an advanced training school preparing professionals for the various disciplines of the SCA championships (Barista, Coffee in Good Spirits, Roasting, Brewers Cup, Milk Art, Cup Tasters, Cezve/Ibrik). It is also the first institution in Italy where a close-knit group of people come together, support one another, and collaborate closely. To date, Team Bugan has won nine national titles and earned two world podium finishes: Daniele Ricci’s second place at the 2023 World Barista Championship in Athens, and Andrea Villa’s third place at the 2024 Coffee in Good Spirits (CIGS) World Championship in Copenhagen.

The Story of Bugan

Founded by siblings Maurizio and Sonia Valli, Bugan Coffee Lab opened its doors on 3 December 2014 in Bergamo. The café’s name was inspired by the bougainvillea, Maurizio’s favorite plant, whose flower appears in the logo.

2000
​The Buganvillea Café opens its doors, the first bar owned and operated by Maurizio Valli, a barista with 18 years of experience. It is a traditional café, serving customers from breakfast through aperitivo. At that time, throughout Italy, there is only one vision of coffee, dominated by espresso. No roaster offers baristas or customers in-depth knowledge about the raw material, its origins, or its sensory qualities.
​Valli thus develops a profound curiosity about the raw material he works with every day: essential, yet often overlooked and undervalued. He begins attending numerous courses, researching, tasting, and shaping his own personal view of the coffee that reaches his bar. This awareness inspires Maurizio to start his own business and begin roasting coffee in a cellar. He recalls, “Every time I roasted, smoke would rise. People passing by would say, ‘Coffee, coffee, smell that aroma.’”

2005
​The first step that marks his break from all roasters is giving up the gratuitous loan, made possible by the purchase of his first coffee machine, a VBM.

2012
​His belief that coffee is a serious business is confirmed in 2012 when he takes his first trip to a plantation in Panama, nicknamed the "Champagne of coffee" because of the exceptional quality and high prices of some of its beans.

2014
​Convinced that the world of coffee is an unexplored universe, he designs his new store on Via Quarenghi, in Bergamo’s Città Bassa (Lower Town) establishing it as both a research and training laboratory and a café. On 3 December 2014, Bugan Coffee Lab, Italy's first coffee laboratory, opens its doors.

2015
​Maurizio Valli is awarded Barista of the Year by Bar Giornale magazine.

2019
​On 18 April 2019, the Bugan Coffee Shop opens in Bergamo’s Città Alta (Upper Town).

2022
​Bugan Coffee Lab in Bergamo Città Alta wins the Bar Award for Best Coffee Shop of the Year.

2023
​Daniele Ricci takes second place at the World Barista Championship in Athens, propelling Bugan onto the world podium.

2024
​Andrea Villa secures third place at the World Coffee in Good Spirits Championship in Copenhagen, while Federico Pinna earns 17th place at the World Barista Championship. In the same year, Bugan celebrates three podium finishes at the Italian Championships: first place at the Italian Barista Championship (Federico Pinna), first place at the Italian Coffee in Good Spirits competition (Andrea Villa), and third place at the Roasting competition (Roberto Breno).

2025
​Daniele Ricci secures first place at the Italian Barista Championship, while Andrea Villa claims first place at the Italian Coffee in Good Spirits competition.
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​2026
​Bugan Coffee Lab celebrates three podiums at the Italian SCA Championships: first place in the Barista Championship (Federico Pinna), first place in the Ibrik/Cezve Championship (Francesco Stabile), and second place in the Latte Art Championship (Maurizio Boi).

Bugan Coffee Lab Locations
​Via Colleoni 18 – Bergamo, Città Alta (Upper Town)
​Via Quarenghi 32 – Bergamo, Città Bassa (Lower Town)
​Via Vigevano 15 – Milan, Porta Genova district