Anyone purchase Versalab's espresso press? If so any experiences or comments?
Saw it on YouTube at the Laughing Goat cafe along with several of their grinders. Have read 50/50 good/bad on the grinders so I am looking for the same with the press.

How many people still believe that tamping force makes a difference?

Good question Aleksi! As I said in Are tampers overrated?, the tamp is near the bottom of my list of important contributors to exceptional espresso.

I do believe it's important that tamping force is consistent and the tamp is level -- skills that a barista should acquire without difficulty. Auto-tampers like the one made by Versalab or Macap could help reduce the risk of repetitive motion injury in high-volume cafes, but in a home environment, they're an expensive solution to a small problem.

If I understood correctly, the recommended way to use Versalab Press is to apply the pressure and while the pressure is still on, twist portafilter to get a nice finish on the puck. My experience is that twisting the PF under full tamping pressure would be quite disastrous?

Also how do you use the press with a normal spouted portafilter? The pictures are quite blurry, but it seems that portafilter is placed on a level round pedestal.

Here's a link to that video for anyone interested.

It makes it seem more like an assembly line. Like fast food, not a carefully prepared drink.

Took the words right out of my mouth . . .

I guess my favorite part is near the middle when it's been quite for a while and someone says espresso and I wonder which of the 3 grinders she's going to use and then she just pulls a previously filled portafilter from a grinder that I don't recall seeing touched in the first half and uses that. Like we got all the great equipment but who taught the baristas to use it?

Ira

This espresso press, and the Macap Autotamp, have some place in some cafe's. The owner, who probably refused to get high quality barista training when he opened, and on-going training, can now rest easy, knowing that, what he thinks is the most important part of the process, can't be screwed up. How many times have you heard someone who isn't, "in the know" say, 'yeah, the tamp was off, thats why the shot didn't taste good".

I PERSONALLY think the clicker/espro type tampers are better. While training before your first shift, using a clicker tamper can help you develop a "memory" for the force at which Cafe X baristi tamp with. THEN, hopefully, when the new barista starts, they can use a regular tamper and have some knowledge of how hard to tamp. The AutoTamp/Versalab Press is just one more thing to not have to worry about. . .

I had a Chef once who told me something about these types of products. IE: tools which "do the work for you". He said that when you have a tool which does the job for you, or makes it "easier", in theory, they might be good. But, it's one more thing you're NOT doing, making it that much easier to do your job half-assed. This was in regard to using certain "consumer" kitchen tools, or, "uni-taskers", like a "Roselle" Peeler to do julienne carrots or green onions, or an Apple Core-er/Slicer. Use a chefs knife and you need to actually focus on what you're doing. I agreed with him, and I think the same relates here. Learn to do it properly, with the proper tool, instead of using something which does the work for you. This then causes you to pay full attention to what you're doing. . . Which is very important, both behind a machine, and on the line.

HB wrote:... Auto-tampers like the one made by Versalab or Macap could help reduce the risk of repetitive motion injury in high-volume cafes, but in a home environment, they're an expensive solution to a small problem.

This is exactly right. I've asked several shops in this area about repetitive motion injury problems among their staff & they've all voiced problems with and/or concerns about their coffee preparers. (One of them even had as their "tamping station" a $15 bathroom scale next to their $20k 2-grp machine. And it wasn't even a digital scale!) It's not so much a situation of producing assembly line drinks, as Starbucks obviously fills that chasm. It's really more of a solution for any shop owner who wants to avoid costly worker's comp claims or lawsuits.

Not that we're living in that kind of society today, right?