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If the beans are rancid it doesn't matter when you grind. Unless they're from a roaster its likely all the beans are oxidized.
Here's a clue: lots of beans in the grocery with expiration dates 6 months out. One time at a gourmet store I found a bag of beans that expired 2 years in the future. Combined with a lack of roast date its a giant hint that the beans are already bad (and that the roaster has no respect for their customers.)
You don't care when the beans expire, you care when they were roasted.
Easy test if you can't tell what fresh beans taste like: find a can of Illy beans. Those cans hold positive pressure nitrogen and the beans taste fresh to me more than 6 months after roast.
Illy sells ground and also whole beans. The ground coffee tastes fine when you open the pack but it'll start tasting bad in less than a day. The whole beans will last 4-5 days before they start smelling off.
I don't think Illy is the best coffee there is but they do have their process down and i think their whole beans are great metric for what good coffee is supposed to taste like.
Also: there's a wide range of preferences. My dad can't taste anything but the burnt so he likes the oily black french roast. To me its ruined coffee and it just tastes like charcoal.
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