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One thing I've noted when buying beans is that the time between roasting and purchasing seems to have way more effect on taste than the quality/origin/blend. This is to say that you might find a high end source of beans that sends beans roasted a while ago may not be as good as a "lesser" source who've only just roasted their beans (qualitative differences are all subjective, of course). If you can find a relatively local roaster, and get your beans at least within days of roasting, the flavour to me is more "alive" - their botanical, "fresh" origin is more apparent, and those different flavours blends or single-sources have can stand out more. We get our coffee from a local roaster only 20 minutes away...in fact we're going out today to get another kilo. We can get their beans in walking-distance shops, but they tend to have beans at least a month old. At the source they are at most a few days old.
[I should note, we only drink espresso here, in latte form, so any subjectivity I offer above is purely based on that experience]
In my experience here, the price of beans is driven significantly by reputation. Which is to say that, while usually deserved, sometimes reputation lasts longer than quality, or is specifically driven by a quality you can get at the roaster but not on the shop shelves, for example. So...don't be put off from trying cheaper, especially at a local enthusiastic roaster/seller. Sometimes you're finding better beans from someone who has yet to be able to trade on broad reputation.
And if you like Nescafe Blend 43 more, keep drinking it (I was brought up on it from about age 3). It's all about what things taste like to you...pure subjective judgement for your own pleasure.
Cheers,
Marc
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