Micro-Lot

A term that designates not only a small volume of coffee, but a lot produced separately, discreetly picked or processed to have special character. Read the full definition!: Micro-Lot is a term ripe and ready to be abused. It already is. It’s a term that designates not only a small volume of coffee, but a lot produced separately, discreetly picked or processed to have special character. In other words, a Micro-lot should have been harvested from a particular cultivarCultivar is a term used interchangeably with Varietal in the coffee trade to indicate plant material, although there are distinctions.: The naming of a cultivar should conform to..., from a particular plot of land, from a particular band of altitude, processed in a separate way …or a combination of these things. Ultimately, it is the result of some concerted effort to separate and carefully prepare a lot of coffee that will have special characteristics. If a large lot of, say 250 bags, is divided up into 25 bags lots and sold to small/medium roasters, that is NOT a Micro-Lot. It also implies some experimental or investigative input on behalf of the grower, the buyer or both working in relation with each other. Further, it implies cuppingCupping is a method of tasting coffee by steeping grounds in separate cups for discrete amounts of ground coffee, to reveal good flavors and defects to their fullest.... of lots and making qualitative selection, in an active relationship between farmer and buyer. Many lots sold in the trade as “Micro-lot” do not meet these standards, so it becomes a marketing word, as “natural” was in the ’70s and ’80s, used to imply a value to a product that it does not truly possess!