The economics of coffee roasting reward scale. Large drum roasters (30 kg, 60 kg, 120 kg batches) produce more coffee per hour, use less fuel per kilo, and let a business grow without adding roasting shifts. Kahawa Nzuri chose the opposite direction. We roast in batches of 12 kg or under. This is a deliberate constraint, and it costs us margin. Here is why.
The reason: the coffee is different when you can taste every batch
At 12 kg, we can cup every batch of every coffee we sell. Every roast is scored before it leaves the roastery, and any batch that does not match its profile is either re-roasted, blended into a house lot for local use, or sold as sample stock to potential wholesale partners. It does not leave as retail. That is not a promise we could make at 60 kg.
Small-batch is a quality-control tool, not a marketing story.
The other reason: fresh, not "fresh"
Small-batch also means we roast to demand more of the time. Our subscription orders are roasted within 48 hours of shipping. Our one-time orders inside 72. We do not carry weeks of retail inventory. This is only possible because our batches are small enough that we can roast three times a week without depleting stock.
The trade-off
Margins are lower. Fuel per kilo is higher. Staffing per kilo is higher. We accept those because the alternative — roasting in bulk and hoping the cup doesn't drift — is not compatible with the promise on the front of the site.
What this means for you
Practically: you get fresh coffee. The bag you receive was roasted this week, sometimes yesterday. The date is on it, always. And if a batch was off — as they occasionally are, because coffee is agricultural — it never made it to you in the first place.
That is the entire point of a small roastery in Oslo. Everything else is packaging.