Worldman wrote:This is totally off subject but what I wonder is this: why do everyone's photos look so darn nice and mine are so darn "so-so"? Did you (& Dave/Cannonfodder & Fr. John, et al) use professional photographers? Is my Casio digi camera that "poopy"?

Anyway, thanks for taking the time and spending the effort to do this...WELL DONE!!!

Thanks Len,

There's a few reason i have decent looking pictures:

That was my major in college
I was shooting with a Nikon D70
I had lots of light.


In most homes, there is VERY low light with regards to taking pictures. If you have some shop lights or other source of higher than 100W illumination it will help you out greatly. You can still take great images with a "poopy" camera. Light is your friend.

Nothing too fancy. While I wanted a Canon D30 so I could use my existing lenses. I had to settle on a Canon 2S IS.

Photography was not my major in college (architectural engineering), but I was a serious hobbyist. I built a darkroom in my closet. Use to use a friends color lab after college.

High shutter speeds >60 and low F-stops are a good thing, unless you have a tripod to go lower on the shutter. Natural light works wonders as well. Use a strategically placed mirror to bounce sunlight onto a diffuser (thin white sheet). That does away with hot spots that would throw off your exposure.

Personally, I did not think my photos were all that good, too high of an ISO setting to compensate for the light, or lack there of. So they show some grain, but thanks for the complement.

GreatDane wrote: In fact, I have a couple of new designs in the works. The profile will be much different than the one in the roadshow. My current standard design is a newer generation than the one in the roadshow. This new design has been beta tested and two of the new tampers should be on the way to Paul at Barefoot in about a week.

I have suddenly found myself with a bit of spare time on my hands after a ninety day 'trail of tears' (in which the cats and kittens at Barefoot brightened up one small part of the journey) of serial shows, in the Orange County/Bay area/Tucson vicinity, left me with little more than a half-a-dozen days off. With my newly found free time, I'll offer to test anything you turn, Les! ; >

It's nice that this roadshow has resulted in a lot of new ideas. As well as Les, both Greg and Steve (Pullman and Coffeelab) are working on new designs!

The tamper kit is heading to the UPS store in a few minutes. I wanted to document my thoughts while I could still hold the tampers to refresh my memory. I apologize for not having any new pictures to include. My wife and daughter were too busy laughing at me to take any pictures for me!

My approach to the tamper selection was to try all of them, and then pick out three or four that stood out for one reason or another. Since I had plenty of Black Cat (Thanks, Matt!), I started pulling shots. I spread this out over Saturday, Sunday, Monday and this morning to avoid caffeine overload

My setup

I am using an Isomac Millenium with a bottom-less PF from Espresso Parts. My normal basket is a LM triple, which I used for these tests. My normal tamper is a Thor Hammer that was a gift from my wife a couple of years ago. Since I use a Thor every day I didn't use the Thor in the kit.

Here are the ones that I picked out of the bunch that stood out to me, and the reason that each one stood out.

EPNW Compressore

I have fairly large hands, so the Compressore caught my attention immediately because of the large bulb. When I picked it up it felt good in my hand. It's a heavy tamper, but it is well balanced, The shiny black handle fit my palm well, but the overall length was about 1/4 inch short. The piston has a bevel that starts right where the handle joins, and this seemed to fit well with the tips of my fingers when I gripped the tamper. In use, the Compressore did a good job. I had no issues with channeling and my extractions were very even (I use the WDT, so this didn't surprise me). The Compressore in the kit has a flat bottom, and my Thor is convex, but I didn't see any significant difference between the two.

Cafe Kultur TORR

The TORR grabbed my attention for a couple of reasons... I like wood and the dark wood handle has a rich look to it, and it has a longer handle than the Compressore, but the bulb isn't significantly smaller. The TORR is lighter than the Compressore, but it still has a nice heft to it and a good balance. The piston has a mildly convex base and a flat top where it meets the handle. In use, I found that the longer handle was just about perfect for my hand. My finger tips were firmly on the top of the piston while the top of the bulb fit nicely into my palm. I don't know if it is because of the better fit, or because I was feeling particularly strong that morning, but I had to back off on my grinder one step with the TORR. My shots were all taking 8-10 seconds longer than normal. Once I made the adjustment, I didn't see any quality issues in my espresso. Channeling and shot distribution were good and the shots were all drinkable.

Reg Barber Radical Pro

I grabbed the Radical Pro since the handle was so different than any of the others. When I first picked it up, I noticed that it was not as balanced. The piston end was much heavier than the handle end. Also, because of the long handle, I had to change my grip to one that is more like the way I would grip a golf putter or a fishing rod handle. This put my arm in an awkward position when tamping. It just didn't feel right to me. Aside from that, the workmanship is excellent and the transition from the wood handle to the piston is smooth. Once I figured out my grip, I found that the tip of my thumb and the side of my forefinger rested comfortably on the top of the piston. It felt good until I actually used it! That is when I noticed how awkward it felt on my arm. I just didn't feel that I was getting as good of a tamp with it. I also noticed this in the shot distribution. I was consistently getting uneven pours that were biased on the same side of the PF (the side away from where my arm was, if that makes sense. It appears that I was putting uneven pressure into the tamp due to my arm position.

Pullman

The mushroom-shaped handle caught my attention with the Pullman. The wood handle didn't hurt, either The Pullman has a shorter handle that the Compressore and the TORR, with a unique shape to the bulb. The piston is also deeper than the others and it has decorative rings around the piston. My first impression of the rings is that they would catch some coffee in them, but I didn't see this in use. I think that they are high enough on the piston that they were out of the coffee. There is a small metal collar on the top of the piston where the handle attached and the piston has a flat area before it tapers off. For my hand, the collar on the piston was in the way of my finger tips and the edge of the mushroom on the handle weren't comfortable on the inside of my fingers. Neither was a major problem, but it wasn't as comfortable to my hand. In use, these small issues didn't effect the espresso. I didn't see any problems with channeling or uneven extraction.

La Forza

I grabbed the La Forza because it's just so pretty . The large bulb and longer handle were also a draw. I really liked using this tamper. The looks are great, but the most important thing to me is how it performs. A large part of that is comfort in the hand, and the La Forza felt very good to me. The large bulb fit into my palm securely and the length was just right. My fingertips were securely on the beveled piston. The piston on the La Forza in the kit is convex, and has a deeper curve to it than some of the others. It's nicely balanced and may even be slightly heavier at the handle than at the piston. Tamping with the La Forza was easy and the results were great. As before, I didn't have any issues with channeling or uneven extraction, but I did have to back off my grinder one step like I did with the TORR.

CoffeeLab Design

I am going to contradict myself in a couple of areas with this one! I said I like wood, and this tamper doesn't have any wood. I said that I like a larger bulb, and this tamper has a an average-sized bulb! But... The CoffeeLab Design is my favorite in the kit. It has a high tech sort of look that appeals to the geek in me, so that's why I first grabbed it. When I first picked it up, I wasn't too impressed. It's not quite as heavy as some of the others, but it does have a nice balance, but when I gripped it with my normal grip the bulb was about 1/2 inch short of my palm. I had to bend my finger to the point where I was putting more pressure on the tips of the finger nail rather than the meaty part of the finger. It didn't feel right. So, I started playing around with my grip. I found that if I put the bulb at the base of my middle finger and my fingertips and thumbtip on the rubber piece at the base of the handle, it felt very good. The rubber on top of the ball and the rubber at the base of the handle gave me a very secure grip. Once I made this adjustment, I enjoyed using this tamper very much. So much that I am playing with it while I'm typing this message (Yeah, I am a geek! ).

My top three:

1. CoffeeLab Design - I had to adjust my grip, but once I did I couldn't put it down.
2. La Forza - Great looks and a good fit for my hand
3. Cafe Kultur TORR - this was a close one. The TORR or the Compressore could have fit into this slot, but I chose the TORR because it felt a little better in my hand.

So... Thanks to Home-Barista and the folks at EspressoParts for putting this together. I may have another tamper in the stable soon! I love my Thor, but the CoffeeLab Design is cool enough to have on hand.

Psyd wrote:Oh, and anyone know why the Radical Pro is so radical? Was it just a whim? Was it a new concept in tamping? I'm guessing that the radical new design means a radical new approach to tamping, or that the radical design was supposed to address some issue, but I'm just stabbing in the dark.

This is from what I understand...

The Radical Pro was designed to eliminate the ability to hold the tamper incorrectly, meaning you have to hold it like a bat or a golf club instead of a rubber stamp (sorry, that's the only thing i can think of that is held similarly). Forcing to hold like a golf club greatly increases the baristas' chances of forming a straight line with the tamper > hand > wrist > forearm > elbow. This cuts down on stress and getting carpal tunnel.

Like this:



The only problem is that if your counters are too high or you are too short, you are forced into an uncomfortable position. You also might have to adjust how you position yourself and the pf in relation to the counter to get a level tamp.

I think it's a great idea, I just didn't prefer it over many of the others in the set. Much like the clicker tamp, I think it is a great training tool.

Matt... Thanks for the clarification on the Radical Pro. I'm tamping on a kitchen-counter height surface, so it may be too high for a straight line in my arm. I found that my elbow had to be cocked out to the side, and that put my wrist in a strange position. The theory makes sense, however.

The Roadshow participants have a private forum to discuss the logistics of shipping and administrivia. I've merged the two follow-up comments above that came up there into this public thread. Another comment was about the Coffeelab Design tamper. One of their innovations, apart from the groovy feel and retro look, is the tamper's height adjustability:

You can remove those little aluminum washers between the base and knob to change the height. The result is noticable and the handle doesn't shimmy at all. The EspressoCraft tamper is available in different heights, but you must replace the handle, not just slip out a washer or two like the Coffeelab Design.

Paul Pratt was inspired by the Roadshow feedback and decided to try some more glamorous handle shapes:




He also teased us with pictures that just happen to have a new portafilter stand in the background. Here's the full-frontal version:



That's almost enough to convince me to go back to double spouts.

HB wrote:Paul Pratt was inspired by the Roadshow feedback and decided to try some more glamorous handle shapes:

Ya know, I was just checking the e-mail where Paul and I were discussing a few of these things, and wondering when I'd hear about the new toys he was planning! Thanks, Dan.