Think of coffee quality as a pyramid. As you go up the pyramid, the quality increases but the amount available decreases. Thus, there’s the commodity grade coffee at the bottom. It’s the most abundant coffee out there. At the top is the best of the best, but there’s just a small amount available. Micro-lot coffee is in this top portion.

Micro-lot coffee is almost always quality coffee, but not all quality coffee is micro-lot. The term micro-lot itself is used to refer to coffee that comes from a farm but is not part of that farm’s entire production. It is very difficult to produce consistent quality coffee on an entire farm. One acre on the north side of the land may be a bit better than an acre on the east side of the land, and it’s rare to know exactly why since the next year, that may reverse. Oftentimes, when a farmer finds these particular areas of the farm that produce a better tasting coffee than the rest of the land, that plot is harvested and processed by itself. 

When we say a coffee is micro-lot, we are then referring to the fact that the farmer put extra effort in harvesting that coffee and took care not to let it diminish in quality by mixing it with the rest of the farm. This takes time and money to do, but on average, we pay nearly twice fair-trade prices for our coffee in order to give the farmer the incentive to make that effort. We are also saying that the coffee is limited.