Micro vs macro coffee roasters
In the world of specialty coffee we often hear the prefixes micro and macro being thrown around. We tend to hear micro-lots when talking about special coffees at our favourite cafes or micro and macro-roasters when talking about our favourite roasters with friends. While the term micro-lot is more of a common term, we realised there’s not much written about the differences between micro and macro roasters, which are important to supplement your understanding and discussions about micro-lots, for example.
Read on to delve deeper into the differences between micro coffee roasters and macro coffee roasters.
What are micro and macro coffee roasters?
By definition, and a standard measure used across roasting competitions, a micro-roaster is a coffee roaster that roasts fewer than 100,000 pounds a year, while a macro-roaster is a coffee roaster that roasts more than 100,000 pounds a year. Although production sizes are different, both roasters are still considered specialty coffee.
Differences between coffee roasters
Now that we’ve covered a basic understanding of the two types of coffee roasters, we can explore further some of the main differences other than yearly production.
One key difference between micro and macro roasters is the type of offerings that are typically available between the two. In general, both roaster types are able to put emphasis and focus on the origin and transparency of their coffees. However, macro-roasters have a higher demand to meet, therefore, it’s common to see macro-lot coffees more readily available. On the other hand, micro-roasters are able to offer both types of coffees but cannot always have the same supply of micro- and macro-lots that macro-roasters have access to.
While the offering models differ, micro- and macro-roasters also sometimes differ in business structure. Micro-roasters are typically associated with small scale businesses while macro-roasters are usually larger scale businesses. Of course, there are certain circumstances depending on sales avenues, such as online sales, cafe sales, and wholesale deals.
What Kind of Roaster is Colombia Coffee Roasters?
Colombia Coffee Roasters is considered a micro-roaster. We are proud of this designation and are even more proud to have direct relationships with some of Colombia’s finest producers. As a micro-roaster that roasts some beautiful Colombian micro-lots, we are able to put our fullest attention to detail when roasting these incredible coffees for you. By doing so, we also do our part in respecting the origin and highlighting the true identity of the origin through these coffees. We roast to tell the story and showcase the work of each producer we work with.
If you’re interested in trying some of our micro-roasted micro-lots, be sure to check out our roasted coffees here! We’ve also just rolled out a weekly subscription. If you need your coffee replenished on a weekly basis, you can sign-up here.
