Many of the flavor and aroma compounds that make coffee delicious are fragile and begin to break down within weeks of roasting. Most commerical coffee available has been roasted weeks if not months ago in bulk roasting facilities before going through a chain of intermediaries before reaching the customer. By the time you open the bag, the beans are stale. We do things differently. We roast our coffee Monday through Friday and ship it out the next day, so that it can be enjoyed at its freshest.
At the same time, coffee can also be too fresh as the carbon dioxide created during the roasting process needs to be released from the beans in order for the coffee to brew properly. For lighter roasts suitable for manual brewing, the coffee will be ready in 2-3 days after roasting while darker roasts suitable for espresso are best after resting for 4-5 days.