One thing to be mindful of is the roast date. Whole Foods might be better at this than others (I'm not sure) but many grocery stores, even high-end specialty o

One thing to be mindful of is the roast date. Whole Foods might be better at this than others (I'm not sure) but many grocery stores, even high-end specialty ones, have coffee sitting on their shelves that was roasted 3–6 months ago. Even worse, sometimes the roast date will be omitted from the bag entirely (or replaced by an arbitrary made-up "best by" date) because the coffee is embarrassingly old. A good third wave shop will sell beans with a roast date of about a week or less. Most baristas recommend beans tasting best when used within 2–3 weeks of roast date. I suspect you'll get much fresher beans ordering through a service like Bottomless that drop ships directly from the roaster. It might be something you've never thought about until you've tasted the difference between freshly roasted vs not. Not everyone cares about freshness but it's very important to me.