Miguel's Story
Miguel Lamora is founder of Atmans Coffee, a roastery which found a second life for itself in a Barcelona apartment, and that has since grown into a global specialty brand.
Looking back, Miguel realizes that Atmans never really started with a business plan.
It All Began with Curiosity
Growing up in A Coruña, in northwest Spain, specialty coffee wasn't really a thing around him. He was studying illustration and design while working as a waiter, and he had no idea that coffee could become a real profession.
Then one day, he discovered videos of people like Luigi Lupi and David Schomer. Something clicked. He became fascinated by the beauty, precision and craftsmanship behind coffee back in 2003.
Curiosity slowly became obsession.
Competition, and a New Career
Over the years, coffee took him from Galicia to Barcelona, then to London, and eventually back to Barcelona again, where he had the chance to experience some of the most exciting coffee scenes in Europe and around the world. Along the way, he competed, taught, traveled to many places and met incredible people.
He was fortunate to stand on competition stages, representing Spain twice and finishing third at the World Latte Art Championship with the best European result in 2013. He was lucky, too, to have trained thousands of coffee professionals and, later, to serve as National Coordinator of the Specialty Coffee Association in Spain between 2016 and 2019.
But looking back, none of those things really define his relationship with coffee.
What mattered most to Miguel was always the process: Learning. Failing. Repeating. Understanding.
Trying again.
Perfecting.
A False Start, for the Right Reasons
In 2016, Miguel opened Atmans, one of the first multi-roaster coffee shops in Spain. A year later, he made the difficult decision to close it. Not because it wasn't working, but because he felt he had the opportunity to contribute to something bigger than himself.
He accepted a position as Director of Coffee and Head Roaster for another company, while also dedicating time to the development of specialty coffee in Spain through the SCA.
For the following seven years, he continued to help: building projects, roasting coffee, and supporting the growth of others. He'd found a niche for himself.
But life had other plans for Miguel.
Starting Over with a Tonne of Coffee
Working conditions suddenly grew difficult, and he found himself at a crossroads, and in a rather strange position. He had no clear roadmap, no big plan, nor much in the way of savings.
Still, he had his experience – more than twenty years devoted to coffee – along with a tonne of green beans, and a determination to start over, as he had done many times before.
After a lot of research, he found in Aillio the opportunity and confidence he was looking for.
The Bullet was the tool I could afford, but more importantly, it was the tool I trusted.
It wasn't a goal to build a large company, but to make a living doing something he cared about. If that worked, maybe one day he would buy a bigger roaster, and a place to put it. A proper workspace. A team.
It could turn into something that might grow.
So in 2022, Atmans was born again, this time as a man roasting from the top floor of his apartment in central Barcelona, carrying coffee sacks up five floors by himself and working long days to keep up with demand.
In those days, the Bullet became much more than a machine. It was workshop across many long days and longer nights. A place to experiment. To fail. To improve.
To slowly shape the identity behind Atmans.
Along the way, I also became Aillio's main reseller in Spain, helping many others begin their own roasting journeys, which somehow feels like coming full circle. At one point, after roasting close to four tonnes in a year on a single Bullet R1, Rasmus (Aillio Europe) jokingly told me I was probably the "World Record Bullet Roaster."
Trusting the Process
Today, almost four years later, Atmans has quietly grown from roasting just six kilos during the first quarter to more than ten tonnes a year, reaching customers in over twenty-five countries and some truly incredible places around the globe.
The Bullet eventually gave way to a Giesen W6 and a dedicated roastery near Barcelona.
Altmans is currently rebuilding, refining and evolving once again, both visually and creatively. Different tools. Different scale.
Same principles.
I never really chased success, although I always dreamed about it. I simply tried to do things properly and trusted that, sooner or later, the rest would follow.
Somehow, what started with a single Bullet became about a full-fledged coffee company. Not just any company, but one built around hard work, dedication, discipline and the belief that doing things properly still matters.
More than twenty years after discovering coffee, and almost four years after bringing Atmans back to life, Miguel still feels like he's just getting started...