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Barista Tamper and Tamper Mats
The tools and techniques you need for tamping coffee.
Published December 17, 2021
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Erik Hedlund
Coffee experts@The Coffee Lab
Making espresso is a complex process that can sometimes be quite difficult to get just right. When making espresso, even the smallest of details can have a huge impact on your resulting cup of coffee. One part of the process that can make a huge difference to how your final coffee tastes is tamping. This process sounds fairly simple; all you need to do is squash the coffee down before putting it in the machine. But while that might be the basics of tamping, there are some details about this process that you should know if you want to perfect your espresso and really get the most out of the process.
While tamping is actually one of the easiest things to get right when making espresso, many people don’t realize that they’re not doing it right. In many cases, making small changes to your tamping technique can be all you need to seriously improve your espresso game. Read on to find out more about how to tamp your espresso for the best results and learn which accessories can help you even further.
Start With a Level Bed
To tamp your coffee property, you will need to get an even bed of espresso grounds. The easiest way to do this is to level the grounds by sliding your finger across the top of the portafilter. Avoid using a hard utensil such as a knife since this can cause damage to the portafilter. After leveling the bed, make sure that there are no gaps. Spaces can sometimes be left in the puck using this method, which can lead to an uneven extraction. Making sure that there is more than enough coffee in the portafilter before doing this will ensure that you get a smooth surface.
Practice The Technique
If you don’t use a sound technique for tamping your coffee over time, it can be harmful to your joints. It can take a lot of force to properly pack the espresso down, which can damage your joints, particularly your wrist, over time. If you’re making coffee for yourself at home this might not be a huge issue, but it is often a concern for professional baristas who tamp several – sometimes hundreds – of pucks per day. However, the good news is that if you take the time to learn and practice the proper technique from the start, you shouldn’t have to worry about any damage to your joints.
To get the technique right, start with how you are gripping the tamper. You should hold it with your thumb and index finger. Using several fingers will make it easier for you to ensure that even pressure is applied, which is necessary to make sure that your puck is evenly packed, leading to a shot that is evenly extracted. Many people mistakenly use their arms to apply pressure to the coffee grounds, rather than producing the necessary force using their bodyweight. Rather than pushing with your hand, lean your body weight into the puck to tamp the grounds down.
Making Your First Tamp – Stage One
Now that you know how to prepare the grounds for tamping and how to get the right technique, it’s time to tamp the coffee ground. Tamp in two stages. The first stage is for making sure that all the grounds are leveled out in the portafilter and ready to be compressed, and then during the second stage, you will tamp the grounds down using the full amount of force needed. Using your body weight, apply around fifteen pounds of force to the puck. If like many people you have no idea what fifteen pounds of force should feel like, lean on your bathroom scale until it reaches this weight to get a better idea. You can use your bathroom scale on the floor by the kitchen counter while tamping. Stand on the scale and after the weight settles to your bodyweight, lean on the tamper while it is resting on the tamper and watch the weight on the scales decrease. Practice this a few times until the weight reading on the scales has decreased by around fifteen pounds, to get a better idea of how much force you should be putting onto the tamper.
Making Your First Tamp – Stage Two
Once you have used fifteen pounds of pressure to slightly compress the puck the first time around, it’s time to move onto the second stage of tamping the coffee grounds. During this stage, you will push harder and ramp up the amount of force that you use. You will want to use around twenty-five pounds of force, which you can do using the scales like the first time to get a better idea of what that looks like. During this tamping stage, you should also twist the tamper slightly as you remove it from the portafilter. This will knock any grounds from the sides and prevent channeling. Be sure to wait until you have stopped applying pressure to the puck before you perform any twisting motions, otherwise, this will disturb the tightly-packed grounds and might lead to an uneven bed.
Choosing the Right Coffee Tamper
The coffee tamper that you use will play an important role in your resulting espresso. The tamper can make the density of the coffee grounds in the portafilter as even as possible to ensure that everything is extracted evenly from the coffee. Along with using the right technique and amount of pressure while tamping, the coffee tamper that you choose is also important. Many home espresso machines come with a tamper included, but this is often a cheap, plastic one that isn’t going to help you get the best results. There are several factors to keep in mind when choosing the right coffee tamper, including:
Structure: A coffee tamper comes in two parts; the handle and the base.
Type: There are various different coffee tampers on the market to choose from according to the shape of the base and handle, such as the C ripple tamper. Spend some time researching the different types available and choose the best one based on the size of your coffee machine’s portafilter and what will be the most comfortable for you to use based on your method of holding the coffee tamper and the size of your palms.
Material: Most coffee tampers come with either one of two materials. For the most part, you will be able to get either wooden or metal tampers, which are typically made of either stainless steel or aluminum. Aluminum is a lighter option, while stainless steel is heavier and adds more convenience when applying pressure.
Base Size: The coffee tamper that you choose needs to fit perfectly into your portafilter. Before you choose the right coffee tamper for you, it’s important to find out the circumference of your portafilter and get one that matches. In general, they come in sizes of 49mm, 51mm, 53mm, 57.5mm, 58mm, and 58.5mm.
Is It Worth Investing in a Tamping Mat?
When looking for the right tamper to use with your home espresso machine, you might come across other tools and accessories such as tamping mats, and wonder if these are worth investing in. Whether or not you decide to use a tamping barista mat is down to your personal preference, as there is no difference to the final cup of coffee based on whether or not one is used. However, some baristas decide to use a tamping mat for a variety of different reasons. Some of the main benefits of using a tamping mat when tamping your coffee grounds include:
Less Noise: As expected, bringing down a heavy metal tamper with a huge amount of force to tamp the coffee grounds can make a loud noise if you are doing this on a hard surface like your kitchen counter. A tamping mat will provide cushioning and absorb this noise, making the process much quieter, which can make it easier if you’re making espresso for yourself in the morning while other members of your household are still asleep.
Easier On Your Body: You can get rubber tamping mats that make it easier for you to keep your portafilter and tamper in one place when tamping, which can be easier on your body as it prevents the portafilter from moving around while you are tamping coffee grounds.
Prevent Damage: Bringing down a metal tamper into a metal portafilter filled with coffee grounds can sometimes lead to damage. While you can put a towel or something else down to prevent damage if you have nice kitchen worktops and don’t want to risk scratching or marking them in the process, a tamping mat is an accessory that is designed specifically for this purpose.
When making espresso, learning how to tamp coffee down with the right accessories is one of the first things to get right for the perfect brew. The good news is that tamping coffee grounds is one of the easiest parts of the process to master, and once you have the right technique you can expect perfectly even coffee grounds every time.
About the author
Erik Hedlund
With Era of We and The Coffee Lab, I hope to share knowledge, increase the value of coffee – and secure the future of coffee.
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