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The widespread concept of order- Delivery and Online Sales
ing take-away coffee is still not normal
in Italy, it is still very much a foreign
Italians normally only ever get su-
way of experiencing coffee for both
shi and pizza delivered, however, since
baristas and customers. Ordering from
COVID-19 and all the restrictions it
a distance, waiting and then taking the
Photo / Pedro Mealha
brought along, Bugan has began deliver-
drink away, in your own mug, is the way
ing its beans to more and more thirsty
Maurizio wants to go, since indoor con-
Italians. Their need to get creative to stay
sumption is currently limited by on-and-
in business has also pushed them to come
off lockdowns. Bringing your own cup
up with new marketing strategies to
to the café should become the new,
implement sales, explains Maurizio.
eco-friendly, normal. No one should
So let’s go back to coffee. If the
be drinking specialty coffee from a
system is already patented for food, des-
paper cup.
serts, as well as for beans, how about
espresso, cappuccino or filter coffee — is
The License
delivering those items and maintaining
their quality even possible? “Yes, but
It is difficult to make predictions
also no. We could study formulas with
about the future now, but delivery
specific thermos that guarantee the
cannot be the only possible solution,
quality of the product, but always with-
“especially for a product like coffee,
in a few meters of the bar for filter coffee,
which is difficult to transport”. Not
even the re-organization of spaces will
do it, since most Italian cafés are
nothing more than very small rooms.
It will be necessary to intensify and
maintain a high-quality standard,
starting with the service, which must
become more qualified and profes-
sional. “When coffee shop owners
come to Bugan Coffee Lab to train I
usually ask them how they got here.
Their answer is usually ‘I drove here’,
so then I would ask them if they have
their licenses. Their eyes open and I
can feel the confusion in their minds.
My point with this is: before you drive
a car, you need a license. It should be
the same for coffee: how are you going
to make and sell coffee if you don’t
have a ‘license’ a.k.a. proper training,”
explains Maurizio.
To be able to keep business moving
forward, however, it will not be enough
to simply be good bartenders. Having
an entrepreneurial mindset and an eye
for quality is now a must as well.
As of November 2020, the road to
reopening is still long and the light at
the end of the tunnel is blurred by the
impossibility to predict what will lay
ahead of us in a few months. So what
can baristas do in the meantime?

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