I'm judging quality as the market judges quality which generally equals higher priced (the only exception are coffees (or wines etc.) have "brand" recognition o

I'm judging quality as the market judges quality which generally equals higher priced (the only exception are coffees (or wines etc.) have "brand" recognition or are near tourist areas and the tourists drive the prices up in the excitement of buying from where they are, Kona.) dark roasting coffee decreases the subtle differences between beans. The more you roast, the more the aromatics disappear. full stop, theres no way around it. You are not going to buy the most expensive coffees to dark roast unless you are a fool. But as you say, there are differences between heavily roasted beans, as an example I mentioned, some might have chocalate notes.