Pat
I didn't miss your point about having tried different roasteries, but I've made a bad job of trying to explain the current state of the coffee industry to you.
Some background on me. Serial fresh coffee drinker for 40 years. Fanatical interest in coffee to the point of having spent time on coffee plantations in Cuba, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Laos, Burma and Vietnam. I roasted my own coffee until 2 years ago when I sold my roasting machine. Just prior to that I had started setting up my own coffee roasting business until I realised that the market was over-saturated and I'd missed the boat by about 5 years, making the venture too much of a risk.
The coffee industry in the UK used to be dominated by medium size roasteries producing commercial grade coffee. Very little knowledge involved and not much care. Robusta heavy, and then cremated to fuck.
Then along came the 3rd wave, from US and Australia, focusing on medium and lighter roasted coffee. Lots of central american, and east African beans that cannot take a darker roast, really floral and acidic rather than the choc/caramel flavours you like.
This 3rd wave has been pushed to the extreme, to the point that pretty much all of the retail roasters that you will come across (As opposed to trade suppliers) feel obliged to take this approach. If you see anything labelled 'artisan' or 'speciality' whether it be cafe or roastery it will be dominated by lighter fruitier coffees of a type that you don't like.
I don't like them either, or at least not in espresso based drinks. For me these coffees are best suited to low-dose pour over methods or all the subtlety is lost.
There are very very few roasteries with a public profile that produce 'traditional' style (ie. medium-dark to dark roast, South American, Indonesian heavy blends) and those that do are very a bit too traditional in that they still use shit beans and burn them.
Which is why somebody like Coffee Compass is. bit of a rare gem...otherwise I wouldn't be recommending them. I was chuffed when somebody pointed me to them about 5 years ago, as I was utterly sick of the 3rd wave hipster wank coffee. I haven't found a better source of Italian-style coffee.
T42: it's nearly 30 years since I lived in France (Rhone Alpes/Loire) and then if you asked for a coffee you go an under-extracted espresso (ie. too much water, not enough beans) made from junk grade coffee.
Bizarrely I quite liked it at the time, but on the rare occasions I go to France and have the same all I can taste is the glaring faults. The French, just like the Italians, can't see past their own gastronomic culture.
