Buzzword: Micro-lot beans

Consumer Reports News: July 28, 2010 04:42 PM

What it means: A small quantity of highly selected green coffee beans. Micro-lot beans are usually the very best quality the farmer or cooperative can produce.

Why the caffeine buzz? When your bag of beans is labeled with the latitude, longitude, and elevation of the area where it was grown, it's time to wake up (and smell the coffee).

A traditional lot of coffee, as traded on the ICE Coffee Exchange, is 37,500 pounds, according to the Specialty Coffee Association of America. And then there's the exceptional micro-lots, ranging from a few bags, about 132 pounds each, to half a container. You'll find micro-lot beans online and in stores from $10 a pound to $30 and more.

But if the price gives you the jitters, consider that Eight O'Clock Coffee topped our Ratings of 100 percent Colombian coffees (available to subscribers) and costs about $6 per pound. Using a good coffeemaker doesn't hurt either.

—Kimberly Janeway

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Buzzword: Micro-lot beans

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