A friend just sent me 1lb of Black Cat. Roast date 10/3 - seven days old now.
Is it too late to freeze the beans?
If I do freeze now, what if any difference will I notice when I use the beans later?

Thanks for a quick reply!

Happy Holidays.
Matt

Most coffees are still in their prime around day 7. You could toss it in the freezer and put off its inevitable decline a bit longer. In my experience, freezing commercially roasted coffee a few days post-roast extends its freshness a couple weeks. In Coffee: To Freeze or Not to Freeze, Ken presents persuasive evidence that freezing can extend freshness much longer, but he used a deep freezer and packaged the coffee immediately after roasting.

For reference, I've excerpted a couple points from the conclusion that are particularly noteworthy:

Ken Fox wrote:* Two months is safe: Freshly roasted coffee that is immediately frozen after roasting in a near airtight container in a very cold freezer, can be kept undisturbed in the freezer for at least 2 months and be expected to produce espressos that are not obviously inferior to those made from fresh coffee that has never been frozen.

* Freezing does not accelerate staling after defrosting: At least over a period of time extending to about 8 days after roasting, using the roasting and freezing procedure used here, there was no evidence that previously frozen coffee deteriorates more quickly after defrosting than does coffee that has never been frozen.

You could answer this for yourself and others. That is, split the pound and use half of it now and half of it in two weeks, then report if there's a significant difference.