Handle-less Style Tamper - Page 2

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homeburrero
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#11: Post by homeburrero »

RioCruz wrote:Anyway...there must be a commercial maker for this type of tamper, so if anyone knows of one please let us know.
There's that Australian EasyTamp 5 star that earlgrey_44 pointed out. Comes in a variety of sizes, and is a little beyond what you're doing (has a spring system that bottoms out at 15 Kgf.)

Another Aussie one seems to be available (to Australians only) online now: https://www.thegreatleveller.com.au/ . Has an Australian patent pending. The online order site doesn't inspire much confidence - they have no product info (not even the tamper's size!)

You can register interest in the Push tamper - I believe that's the one recently seen at the WBC. Also has a patent pending.
Pat
nínádiishʼnahgo gohwééh náshdlį́į́h

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Randy G.
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#12: Post by Randy G. »

RioCruz wrote:If you weigh the beans and use the same dose (which I always do), the pressure needed to tamp will be considerably consistent no matter the bean or the roast...
There are too many variables to say that this style of depth tamping could be of much value. Sure, if you use exactly the same dose and same blend and same roast level and same age of beans then it should work. And lever machines are more tolerant to light tamps (from what I have read) and that would throw a whole 'nother typing monkey working on Shakespeare into the mix. The tamper stops- how compressed is the coffee? 10 pounds? 30? 50? But for those of us who like to change things up on a regular basis, that tamper would likely be the source of more sink shots than a "standard" tamper.

Personal example- I just changed a blend and roast with my latest batch and had to increase my dose and dial in my grinder quite a distance. And then would have had to do further assessment if I was tamping to a depth.

Why tamp? to get a compressed bed of coffee. Where does compression come from? Force, measured how you like. While there is a minimum headspace required on some machines, never have I heard anyone say , "Tamp four point five millimeters," or anything similar. There was a tamper that was held level buy an outer support and the piston traveled to the coffee, and that is a noble effort, but tamping to a set depth? How do you know that the entire bed of coffee is compressed equally? With fingers around the base of a standard tamper you can feel if the coffee is generally of equal density across the puck, but not very well with this tamper because it stops at its bottom, not the "bottom" of compression.

Sure, I have never used a tamper of this type, but then again I have never used a ruler to see how much I weigh. Not trying to dissuade you from the use of this device, and if it works for you that's fine with all of us. But depth tamping is just adding another variable when consistency in making espresso is already sufficiently challenging.
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RioCruz (original poster)
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#13: Post by RioCruz (original poster) »

homeburrero wrote:- You can register interest in the Push tamper - I believe that's the one recently seen at the WBC. Also has a patent pending.
Yes, this looks like what I saw the barista champ using. Thanks, Pat!

And yes, Dominick, the one I made is adjustable simply by screwing the base clockwise or counter clockwise...as you suggested. I think the one Pat indicated does the same thing.

It would be an easy little project for anyone to make one of these. Give it a try and see how you like it. I personally have over a dozen tampers with all sorts of different configurations that I have successfully used over the 30+ years I've been playing with espresso, but at this point I use use my "push" tamper almost exclusively. The proof of the results are, as always, in the cup...and this little device never fails to deliver.
"Nobody loves your coffee more than you do."
~James Freeman, Blue Bottle

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aecletec
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#14: Post by aecletec »

Didn't Sasa use it before regular tamping? I remember two actions...

thm655321
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#15: Post by thm655321 »

Londinium makes a number of button tampers which look similar.

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yakster
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#16: Post by yakster »

Sasa used something a bit different for a pre-tamp level set.
-Chris

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Bob_McBob
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#17: Post by Bob_McBob »

As others have noted, self-leveling tampers have been around for a while. Most of them allow the user to either quickly adjust the tamping depth or simply apply as much pressure as needed. Here's the Demaral tamper from 2008.

Chris

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RioCruz (original poster)
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#18: Post by RioCruz (original poster) »

aecletec wrote:Didn't Sasa use it before regular tamping? I remember two actions...
Yes...now that you bring it up, Sasa is the guy! You can see him using it at minute 2:26 of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZra7LSXRxU

The one he is using doesn't look like it adjusts. It's a fixed tamper...at least that's the way it looks to me. That may be the reason he uses it and then follows up with a regular tamper. I prefer being able to adjust mine...altho since my dose and grind are pretty much always the same, it may not be necessary...
"Nobody loves your coffee more than you do."
~James Freeman, Blue Bottle

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