Manual Tamping Machine

Espresso preparation is hard. One of the most difficult elements of making espresso is tamping. Aside from learning proper grind adjustment, this is the issue that gives most people problems with inconsistency in extraction. Customers occasionally contact us in the believe that something is wrong with their espresso machine. Almost invariably, it's user error. And more times than not, this arises because (well, to be honest, they have no idea how to make espresso and really have no business trying) there are simply too many variables. So I went on a quest to mitigate this problem, starting with the tamp.

There is a machine called a Puqpress, which is a fully automated version of this same idea. It works great, and it also costs a thousand dollars. That didn't deter me as much as the fact that the Superkop portafilter won't fit in a Puqpress. Then I found this baby. All you have to do is grind the proper amount of coffee into the portafilter basket, settle, level, then put the portafilter in the forks of the machine. Pull the handle down until it clicks. That's a dynamometer built into the piston to ensure you compact the puck with the same amount of force each time. Consistency. That's the key.

Now, go figure out your grind size.