Roasted coffee beans can have a shelf life up to a year; however, the taste and aroma can begin fading within a couple of days after roasting. After beans are ground flavor and aroma can begin fading in one day.

Roasted coffee beans should be stored in a cool, dry place and in a sealed container to avoid oxygen. 

Those holes in the bag are actually one-way valves. Fresh roasted beans continue to release gasses, (primarily carbon dioxide) for approximately one day. At Absolutely Roasted we bag the beans shortly after roasting then when they are shipped or delivered the beans are at their peak of freshness for enjoyment.

You probably will not find these valves on the coffee bags on the grocery store shelves. Those beans could be weeks or even months old so they completed their de-gassing but are not as fresh.

There are four main processes for removal of caffeine. Direct-Solvent Process, Indirect-Solvent Process, Swiss Water Process, and Carbon Dioxide Process. The solvent based processes use some kind of a chemical solvent to remove the caffeine from the beans. 

A commonly used chemical in the Direct-Solvent Process is Methylene chloride . It is a solvent that is used to bond with and strip caffeine molecules from the green coffee seed. The KVW MC process first uses hot water to extract caffeine and other solubles from the coffee seeds, and then the seeds are removed from the water. Methylene chloride is then added to the water solution, and it bonds with the caffeine; because MC is not miscible (does not mix) with water, it is easily removed from the solution along with the bonded caffeine, and the coffee seeds are re-submerged in order to absorb their soluble compounds and re-absorb the flavor producing chemicals. The United States Food and Drug Administration has stated that MC is safe for use in decaffeination processes, and is harmless to humans in consumption of 10 parts per million (ppm) or less. Coffee decaffeinated using this method has been shown to contain a fraction of that safe amount.

Great question. A dose (1, 12 oz cup) is approx. 18-20 grams of ground coffee beans. A 12 ounce bag of premium beans is 340 grams. 20 grams of roasted beans (plus or minus) is 17 cups of coffee. That should help figure the cost which is approx. $1 per cup but varies a bit based on bean availability and other costs. Compare that to a corporate or franchise coffee shop!