Hello All,
I recently restored a La Pavoni Europiccola and began using it for about 1 week now.
I was able to pull some good shots from the machine with a bit of practice. I notice the following when pulling shots, and I'm wondering if anyone can chime in on what I'm doing right or wrong.

I'm using an Ascaso mini grinder (stepless) and I found what I think is a pretty good grind setting.

Depending on how hard i tamp, the pull can be extremely hard (choke) to relatively hard. If i tamp light, the pull is pretty easy.

I'm wondering, do I adjust my tamp or adjust my grind? Or maybe both?

Thanks.

I believe that the prevailing wisdom is to use the same tamp pressure each time and then adjust your grind. Consistency is the key and it's probably easier to dial in the grind then to play with different tamping pressures.

I have a La Peppina spring lever with a 45 mm portafilter and I use a light, finger tamp with this that mostly levels the puck and provides a consistent headspace from the dispersion screen.

I just picked up a Gaggia Factory (basicaly a La Pavoni Europiccola with a bit of a different styling—looks like the Tin Man from Wizard of Oz) and I haven't spent enough time with it to develop any sort of routine. I'm wondering if I should tamp harder with the Factory, so I'm also interested in replies to this thread about tamping for the La Pavoni Europiccola.

In my experience, adjusting the grind is most of the issue (maybe 90%). Adjusting the tamp is more in the realm of fine turning, not dialing in.

Best shots are generally when there is moderate (not too much, not too little) back pressure against the lever during the extraction. You shouldn't have to pull a huge amount of force down on it, but it shouldn't just speed through the pull either. Around 20 to 30 seconds is about right, depending on what sort of flavors you are after.

When you are done, the puck should drop out of the basket with a little rap on the counter. If the puck falls apart, then increase tamping pressure. If you are seeing signs of channeling (hopefully you are using a naked portafilter), then decrease tamping pressure and adjust the grind to compensate.

A little pre-infusion (5 seconds) never hurts. Also starting the pull and then pausing for a second or two (or sometimes pulling a little more water into the group head after half of the first pull) can also have some nice results.

Mainly though, it's the grind, not so much the tamp.

Ray

Thanks for the replies. I'll try adjusting grind first, then practice on the tamping.

Ray,

I appreciate the feedback too and will keep this in mind once I set up the Gaggia and start putting it into production.

I haven't noticed tamp pressure being a big deal on my La Pavoni either....but if I tamp hard I can fit more coffee into the basket which does slow down the flow and increase lever resistance. On the other hand if I weigh out the same dose and tamp at different pressures it doesn't seem to change much as long as I end up with enough headroom to lock the portafilter in. Grinder settings make a big difference too.

But you're reporting huge differences from the tamp pressure....how are you dosing? Could you be getting more coffee in the basket with a stronger tamp without realizing it?

Not that I'm an expert either I've only had my La Pavoni for about 2 months
I'm just wondering how tamp can make such a dramatic difference.

I use a fine grind and light tamp on my pre-millenium EPC-8 with very good results. Doug & Barb @ orphan espresso have a lot of good information about levers (they are the experts if you don't know them). Check out their video on the la pav.

I used to use the more typical 10-12kg of tamp pressure and a dose and grind to match. I changed quite a while back to the light tamp/fine grind regime and on the Pavoni it really seems to work better for me at least. with the finer grind and a couple of taps just a 1kg tamp more just to finish the puck off level. Still running the more typical Tamp/grind on my commercial spring levers however.

Its definitely possible I'm dosing more coffee without realizing (I don't weigh the dose, but maybe I should).
I think I've found a good grind/tamp/dose, and have been pulling pretty consistent shots. I've made the grind just a bit finer and tamping a bit lighter, and it seems to have helped.

Hello All,

I am new to this web site but have been monitoring for a long time.
I have upgraded to a La Pav Pro about a week ago and went through the problems of grinding too fine/too course and tamping excessively hard.

I have followed some of the suggestions posted on this thread and for the first time since I have the La Pav I managed to get a nice shot with some decent crema about 5 minutes ago.

Basically I realised I was making the following mistakes: I was using too little coffee (about 8 grams) in the double portafilter and I was tamping with far too much power (I think there is a certain level of manly satisfaction in tamping with all your strength )
The result was actually interestingly wrong. Obviously I had no drips coming out after preinfusion and I had to put a huge amount of pressure on the lever to get anything out. However, after applying a high level of pressure I gradually had a drop in resistance and water running through like if there was no coffee at all. After removing the portafilter I could notice that the puck had a hole running through. My interpretation is that water found the path of less resistance through the puck due to all the pressure I was exerting.
It has to also be said I was grinding too fine.

Today I wasted about 10 shots to get to something a bit more acceptable. I moved up the grinder by two notches. I got to about 12-13 grams of coffee in the double filter. I tamped relatively lightly, by only using my forearm. I kept the pull steady without being tempted to hammer it through. In fact I applied a moderate pressure using only my arm (before I was using my weight a bit - it shows how well these machines are built as my La Pav was standing still like a rock). Result was quite good and I can still feel the after taste of it...not bad.
Ah, it has to be mentioned that in this experimental period I am not using good quality beans. I am using in fact Lavazza Crema e Gusto. Yes, I know it is an insult to the La Pav, but sorry, I am not throwing away 10 shots of good coffee while I understand how the whole thing works
By the way, my fairly good result shows that even with such lousy beans one can achieve a decent result, so there is hope guys!

However, I would like to reduce the amount of coffee to 11-12 grams as I drink 3-4 espressos a day (like everybody else here I guess ) and smaller doses mean I do not get to dangerously high levels of caffeine in my blood.
Besides, there is a practical issue with having a dose of 12-13 grams: how do you do a double shot? I guess there is no room to fit 25-26 grams of coffee in the double filter, right?

Cheers,
Angelo