Illy beans are supposed to be excellent, but sadly, some batches are affected by importation problems....by the time it gets here, its past its prime. If you get a particularly fresh batch i.e. made and then shipped out straight away, its generally okay, but anything thats been sitting around before shipping is normally rubbish by the time it arrives.

Here's a good article reviewing a lot of the Italian beans available, vs the North American stuff.

http://coffeegeek.com/opinions/markprince/10-09-2007