If I could find a sensible way, I'd add wonder/novelty/uniqueness as a category to this and most other things.

The trap of experience is that everything becomes like something you had before. At some point, people can get so experienced that they entirely miss the unique aspects of a thing, and everything becomes just like something else. For professionals, some completely new windfall, like the Geisha, which even the most jaded person can't dismiss as being like anything else can energize the market for years.

I think, once you're experienced, it helps to go looking for completely different and unfamiliar beans once or twice a year, even if they are ridiculously expensive. They won't be everyday coffees, but they can reset your perspective.

I'm looking to find something so different that I can knock down my self ascribed experience score form a 15 to a 5.

Following in Martin's foot steps...

Knowledge (8 points): Being very generous for myself. But I think that I have a lot of the theory (what I could find) read and "understood". I do not know what I do not know yet but I am sure that there is a lot!

Discipline and time commitment (15 points): I am pretty good on this. I want to learn and practice as much as possible. Beginner's enthusiasm...

Experience (5): Not been at it very long. Have not tried that many origins yet. Maybe 40 lbs, 8 origins, maybe 2 or 3 from each... None fully understood and optimised. And so much more to try. Only roasted on popcorn poppers so far. I know that my wife and I as well as most of my customers (family) like coffees on the bright side so the P1 is probably appropriate at this time, I guess.

Cupping ability (1): This I have to practice more or should I write I have to DO. I am not really good at identifying the individual components of aroma and flavour, other than the very obvious ones. I can sense them but I cannot yet separate them. I need to develop the skills to correlate a specific roast profile/process/parameters with the taste in the cup. Because I still prefer blends over SO, I am blending, with some success, by trial and error from the results on the espresso cup mostly. It is very hard (nigh impossible to correlate the roast parameters with the results. At this point I have achieved a fairly good balanced blend with a given set of parameters. Call it luck but now I can try different other things and still be able to get at 1 good cup of espresso a day.

Control of Roast / Equipment (10): I have stripped down, modified and rebuilt the P1 so many time that I could do it with my eyes closed. I have split the controls for the heat fan and the element power. I have installed ET and BT thermocouples. I am yet to fully understand how to use the ET data though. I have installed a glass roast chamber extension and a chaff collector with fume exhaust extraction. I data log every roast with power and fan setting notes. I now only and always roast 185 grams batches. Still, I feel that the control (or lack thereof) is still a work in progress. I'll package that with the lack of experience.

Wonder/novelty/uniqueness (20): Everything is a novelty to me at this point. I enjoy the variety and flexibility of roasting my own over purchasing from professional roasters. My results may not compare but they are good enough (thanks to my lucky blend) to sustain the learning process.

I guess this post will not help anyone else but it will maybe provide an explanation for my often naive comments elsewhere. It also helped me identify my next learning priority: Cupping!!!

I welcome any comments.

After 5 years, experience wise I'm finally feeling somewhat at one with the beans and my roaster. With still plenty of room to tighten the relationships. Adding the BT RoR meter this year has made what's happening moment to moment much clearer and allows me more time to explore smells and sight without getting off course with control. Cupping/tasting and the ability to distinguish has greatly improved in the last year or so but being able to describe to others is still lacking. Excitement with roasting only gets stronger, I absolutely love it. Can't imagine not roasting my own beans. Still have a few types of beans yet to explore and am not in a hurry to use those new experiences up too quickly.