When buying coffee, vendors usually list coffee grades, gr 1-5, reflecting the physical quality of an agricultural commoditty. E.g. # of rotten beans, broken beans, insect damage, unscreened pebbles, bean size etc.
Then you get the cupping notes. Citrus, floral, coco, caramel, winey etc.
Does the Lemmy braintrust agree with the consumer buying principle that 80% of your buying decision should be on what you smell and taste in the profile and 20% on grade?
Put another way, other than carefully screening beans in small batches for bad beans and bebbles, does grade mean anything to the drinker? Would the coffee fanatic not enjoy their favourite profile at gr4 over an ok profile at grade 2 as long as they don't chip a grinder on a pebble?
80/20 at least. Maybe more like 95/5 because while pebbles can be removed and insect damage likely can't be tasted, a bad tasting cup of coffee is always a bad cup of coffee.
Not a roaster but it's my understanding that it's pretty easy to mis-roast a good bean to make it taste bad, but I haven't heard many stories about roasting a lower quality bean lot into something amazing.
I would think as a home roaster you'd focus your efforts on the best possible beans, but if you can take a lower quality lot and make it taste great, more power to you. I'm not going to turn my nose up at something if it comes out wonderful in the cup.
You didn't answer the question. No mention of roast. It's Cup profile vs grade. My contention is profile is critical and grade isn't very important as long as you screen your beans for duds and rocks.