Glossary > General Terms > Nano-lot
Nano-lot
General Terms
In Simple Terms
A nano-lot is an even smaller, rarer parcel than a micro-lot - sometimes just a single bag from one plot or processing trial. They command the highest prices and sell out immediately.
What is a nano-lot in green coffee?
A nano-lot is an exceptionally small parcel of green coffee - smaller than a micro-lot - produced from a single small plot, a single tree variety, or a specific experimental processing batch on one farm. While micro-lots are commonly understood as lots of a few bags to a few hundred kilos, nano-lots are typically below 30-60kg of green coffee, sometimes representing just a handful of bags or even a single bag of exceptional material.
Nano-lots are most common at the very top end of the specialty market - competition coffees, experimental processing trials, rare varietals, or the output of a single exceptional tree or row of trees on a farm. They command the highest per-kilo prices in the green coffee world, reflecting both their extreme scarcity and the labour-intensive attention required to produce, track, and export material at such small scale.
For home roasters and micro-roasteries, nano-lots represent an opportunity to work with truly exceptional and distinctive green coffee that would never reach commercial volumes. The challenge is availability - nano-lots are typically pre-sold before they ship, often to buyers with established producer relationships or through curated importer offerings. For GCC's customers, nano-lot releases represent the most exciting end of the green coffee spectrum: coffee that exists in genuinely limited quantities and may never be available again.
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