Lots of good comments here. Clearly, coffee is generally far better if it has been roasted recently. Ideally, that means you'll roast it yourself if you're so inclined. If that's more work than you are bargaining for, find a local place that roasts their beans regularly, or a mail order place that will assure you they'll send out the beans right after they've been roasted.

As stated earlier, Intelligentsia is truly obsessive about sending their coffee out freshly roasted. I have never had stale or over-roasted beans from them. The other option might be to order directly from a coffee farm that grows the stuff you like. I was recently in Kona and visited Greenwell Farms. They grow wonderful coffee, and like Intelligentsia, always send it out right after roasting. Warning: If you order a pound of Greenwell Farms Private Reserve, your wife might not let you buy anything else....