As I'm sure butch knows, coffee is at its peak from when it is 3 or 4 days old up to about 2 weeks old. What is sold at the airport and duty free stores could be a year or two old. They have a best by date on that is just ridiculous. I've seen some two years in the future. I toured a coffee factory (no cheap prices) and I was surprised that ground coffee was a little cheaper than whole bean. Since that involves an extra step I was puzzled. He confided in me that they used quakers, pales, and bits, all coffee defects when they grind the beans so unground is a much higher quality bean. If you go for a visit to the South Coast, the town of Santa Cruz has some decent green beans for sale at the market but no matter what you are told, they are not Blue Mountain. PNG, Papua New Guinea coffee, are offshoots from JBM beans planted in the 1920's. Excellent tasting coffee, but it does not have that silky mouthfeel that JBM gives you. It would be my first choice after real Kona for an island tasty coffee.