68lIf one wanted barter coffee, wouldn’t one want to vacuum pack unroasted beans?
It depends on whether you know how to roast them, have an alternative (non electric) way to roast and grind them, and how far under the radar you want to be when bartering. The smell of roasting beans travels a LONG way!
But it would be the cheapest and longest lasting way to store coffee.
I've been buying Organic whole beans from Aldi for at least 10 years. Hubby keeps up with the supply pretty well, but occasionally, a bag gets "lost". He says the stuff (freshly ground for 2 weeks worth at a time) is perfectly fine even 5 years old.
The budget doesn't allow us to store more than a year's worth or so at a time, but if it did, I'd pack the beans in heavy 6ml) mylar with O2 absorbers.
Oh, the 8 o'clock brand of whole beans (Walmart) is very acceptable (better than Aldis organic, according to hubby... im not a coffee drinker) and it used to be cheaper, as well), but the price went from $9 for 30 ounces to $14.58 for the same size. AND, it's in much thinner mylar bags, to the point you can smell the coffee, even before it's opened. I now put them in heavy freezer bags ( well, as heavy as any of them are these days... I'll skip that rant for now!), but if I was storing them for over a year, I'd have to put them in heavy mylar.
Summerthyme