DavecUK You make a very interesting point…….one of my pet sayings is if you put a cheap cut of horse meat into the worlds most advanced oven what comes out is a cooked version of what goes in. I think you are bang on the buck about roast quality. So many roasters spend a fortune on eco packaging, planting trees, telling a story yet when the chips are down the end product, the roasted bean is sadly lacking. Yes, I agree, there are things that us as individuals can do to perfect our drinks, but the rule of thumb Dave refers to still applies.
When folks on here tell us of beans they purchased at £25 per kilo, then do the maths. I am not. saying that they should not be happy with them, but I suspect they are cost driven. A friend of mine came to me a couple of years ago to say his cousin amongst other things, was now selling coffee. SO, I visited his website and got the usual millenial story how he, his wife and 2 kids went camping etc etc. What he had actually done, was go to a well known white label roaster, had a ton of coffee roasted and bagged up, then set about creating a fantasy story. I bought a bag…….I doubt I would use it for running through a grinder with new burrs.
It does not help when folks come onto forums (not this one) and. big up absolute rubbish. It is a long apprenticeship learning how to roast coffee, and many have failed