Bugan Coffee Lab - Via Colleoni - Città Alta — Restaurant in Bergamo

From 5 stars to 2. What happened?

We’ve been in this specialty coffee shop twice , spaced months apart. This first visit was great. The owner (or one of them, a female brown haired one) was there, was attentive and eager to deepen into conversation about different coffees. At that time my wife had an espresso and I had a flat white. I honestly told her it was the best coffee I had since we had been living in Italy for about 6 months then. I am not new to espresso, bean varieties, processing and even equipment and I brew my own espresso home and coffee is a fond hobby. This place matched my interest.

On the second visit just a couple weeks ago my wife and I were joined by a friend. On a hot summer day my friend wanted an espresso with ice, my wife an americano and I a macchiato. This time the barista was different. A youngish blonde girl. Asking for the iced coffee she refused because she didn’t have ice. So he decided for another americano. “We don’t serve americano”. Why? “That’s not the way we think coffee should be had” she said in the most passive tone while looking down on other preparation. I replied “but you have hot water because you brew filter coffee, it’s just adding that ”. She equally refused. She suggested I could have “Japanese brew coffee” which I didn’t understand what it was until I saw it was a regular V60. My friend accepted that. My wife changed the americano for an espresso an regarding the macchiato, again in the same low tone voice looking down in despair she said “we don’t do that” even though they do offer milk drinks. Before any additional comment she continued “and we don’t have sugar here” even though I don’t have sugar on my drinks . So I asked for another espresso. The mom of the female owner I mentioned before was around. I noticed her after she couldn’t resist to have a giggle in disbelief about the situation. A sort of “here we go again: another customer shocked by the incredible weirdness of taliban baristas”.

I am all for extending specialty coffee. All for letting people know about coffee culture beyond the traditional Italian espresso. But there’s a path to it. In other specialty coffee shops I’ve visited with friends not into coffee, when they asked for sugar for their cappuccino they suggested to first try without sugar and explain the natural sweetness of the milk froth as the right temperature. So people try it and experience it and eventually decide to remove sugar as it’s not needed. But imposing no sugar from the beginning is silly. It’s like going to a restaurant that serves all dishes under salted and asking customers to not add more salt to really appreciate the natural flavors. Yes, it’s better for you, yes, it could eventually make you develop your taste but initially you will not enjoy your plate.

Worst of all was the attitude of the barista. You are treated like an ignorant (when I am not, I was asking for my friends and me what we desired) and there’s no such thing as “this is the only way to taste coffee”. They take their rule book to places they show ignorance. For example they always do a 2:1 ratio for espresso. No matter the roast level and variety or process of coffee. This is sometimes not right and tasting gives the final ratio. But that’s just one of the things their sect believe is the perfect way to taste coffee.

The end result was that we actually didn’t enjoy our espressos. The v60 on the other hand was delicate and sweet and we all agreed it was great.

It’s difficult to return to a place that you are treated badly so most probably we will not return. If I was the owner I’d pay attention to these reviews. You can have your own beliefs but you can’t ignore basic manners and have the customer the option of diluting or sweetening...

Didn't enjoy my experience here for a number of reasons. Coffee was over extracted, bitter and very few of the flavours came through. Better than a Starbucks but still very disappointing I ordered a double espresso and it was massive. More like a double - double espresso. In case you're reading this Bugan, a double espresso should weigh around 30g. They messed up the order and gave me the wrong coffee. No apology, no offer to correct. Nothing. Not great. Massive thin walled plasticky cups. Huge mug sized things. What's that about? Dishwasher broken or something? Espresso is best in a nice thick walled espresso cup in my opinion. The barista stood behind the counter and stared at us whilst we drank our espresso. Why? Did I have something stuck in my beard? Ketchup on my top? Never seen a brown man before? Why are you staring at me?! Really uncomfortable and a bit weird. Wife mentioned that we bought fresh coffee beans over the Internet in the UK. So the barista told us that we could buy their coffee beans and ship them to the UK. Really? Are you crazy? Ship coffee beans from Italy to the UK when I can get them locally? Environment not a concern for you? I enquired about the beans on display. They had at least ten types of coffee available but the roast date wasn't printed on the bags. So I asked when they were roasted. "The 17th." was the baristas reply. All of them? The roaster must've had a busy day on the 17th. Poor guy. I asked about the coffee scores. Barista said she could get them on the Internet. I said okay. She gave up after about 20 seconds and changed the subject. I'm not going to spend €25 on 250g of coffee with a dubious roast date and very little flavour information. Obviously, I soon gave up trying to buy coffee beans.

I feel pretty bad leaving a review like this for an independent coffee shop, especially during the climate we're in, but this is what happened. And for double the price of regular espresso in the local area, I really do expect more. No doubt, if the coffee and service was better I would have spent a small fortune in there. I worried if the issues were because of the language barrier but my Italian wife did all the talking so that wasn't the problem. Maybe it was just a bad day.

Decide for...

TLDR: Fantastic specialty coffee, made with extreme care and attention to detail. Quality milk, beans, and service.

Firstly, if you truly love coffee (note specialty coffee) then please make sure you visit this cafe.

A selection of quality beans, barista who knows their stuff and clearly loves their job and loves the art of coffee.

The milk is clearly also high quality, appears to be from a dairy in glass bottles. Super rich and steams well.

Vegan options available.

The coffee: a great selection of single origin beans, from lively fruit acid to chocolatey/nutty. A taste available to all palletes.

The beans are weighed, and the espresso flow rate measured/weighed. Such great care taken over espresso making, even for the milk drinks such as cappuccino, is amazing to see, and the flavour and texture of the finished product really shows the value of this care!

The milk is steamed perfectly, with the temperature appropriate to maintain the texture and flavour, without denaturing the milk proteins. You can tell, watching the lady, that she really has care to make this properly.

No sugar needed! This coffee is sweet and delicate, and sugar would ruin such delicious and expertly crafted coffee!

Keep up the amazing work! The best coffee I've had in Italy, and will be back!

Thoroughly recommend to anyone who enjoys...