Small shops definitely have the advantage of being able to sell more specialty beans. Another reason that the large chains can't do that is because of consistency as well. Large chains need to maintain a consistent flavor so they can't buy small batches that have unique origin flavors and seasonal condition notes. If they do buy small batches from many different places with differt tastes then they have to roast the crap out of the beans to remove all of the origin flavors and create a more generic roast taste. But since they roast the crap out of the bean and remove all of their unique qualities, it doesn't make sense to pay more for the beans. They can get away with buying cheaper, lesser quality coffee beans that way.
On another note. I was thinking about the grinder and how your can grind light roasted beans. Is it able to grind them even on a fine setting like what you would use to make espresso? Our grinder will grind light beans if we grind them course (like 28 or higher grinder setting) for drip coffee or V60, just not for fine grinds (14-18 setting) for espresso.
Can yours grind them fine as well like in the 14-18 setting?
Totally get the point for the economics of large coffee producers. With the family ones you expect different coffee anyway, and even from roasting to roasting the flavor may vary a bit.
My grinder settings may be a bit different. The sizes 1-10 are marked to be espresso and I grind all the beans all the way to 0 without any problem at all. Breville/Sage have to messed something very bad with the Smart grinder Pro… the mess with the light roasted beans is quite bad!
I see. Okay thanks for the info. Yeah, I think you're right that they messed something up with the Smart Grinder Pro. Lol