When it comes to coffee things become even more challenging. The major coffee roasting companies now offer gourmet coffees and gourmet coffee blends that look like something you might find at a local coffee roaster. However, they are poor imitations of a truly handcrafted, gourmet coffee.
Coffee roasting is both an art form and a science. The art form is when you take a skill set that has been mastered over decades and combine it with the precision of a scientist. The science of coffee roasting is knowing the specific dynamics of the coffee roasting process, a particular nose, and the empirical data about the green coffee bean you are roasting, and of course, the type of coffee roaster you are using to roast the coffee.