This. I don't buy the hype that this or that trendy SF coffee roaster has significantly more skills than the next one (although Ritual Roasters and Sightglass a

This. I don't buy the hype that this or that trendy SF coffee roaster has significantly more skills than the next one (although Ritual Roasters and Sightglass are consistently good :-), but in my experience the principal factor driving taste in home brewed coffee is how recently the beans were roasted. With local roasters, you can usually buy something roasted within a couple of days. Anything industrial and it's in the order of weeks, which saps the aromas tremendously, even in the best storage conditions. Unless Starbucks starts roasting locally, they can't compete with that.