Every evolution brings the organic Kona coffee to be more susceptible to deterioration. Each evolution peels more protective shields away.
When we store our coffee beans from the sun deck, they have a very hard covering on them, and at this parchment stage, coffee has been known to keep for several years. Some cultures actually build glass walls and put parchment into them and don’t take the coffee out for many more years than we would have coffee to keep in that state anyway -- but it is interesting that our concepts of storing parchment do not match what some other cultures think and do...
When we receive new coffee orders, then we take the protective cover off (hull) the parchment to the next stage which is called “green coffee bean”.
We only roast very close to what we need to fulfill our orders, and that is when the “green” is put into the roaster, in which it will lose another thin layer of skin which flakes and rises up as the beans are heated.
The fresh roasted coffee bean is put into protective sealed bags, most of these (except the small 2 oz.) have one-way air valves that allow the beans to breathe out but not take any air in. This is your last shield.
The next evolution is a simple crushing of these beans which gets it ready to go into the pot to perk. This crushing exposes many more surfaces to air, and the decay and aging will be much faster compared to the last evolution when it was left whole roasted.
So, that is the reason, the ground coffee has many more surfaces exposed to accelerate its decay, especially since we're shipping direct from our Hawaiian Kona coffee farm on the Big Island of Hawaii. Much better to order the whole bean coffee, and then crush or grind only what you need for each pot right before you make it.