Hi Claus,

Apologies for the what I can only say is a very poor fit! Looks very much like a bumper handle. In the past we did have some shrinkage on the handles. Did you buy that recently by any chance as things have been really hectic and a few local companies asked for items and we sent things out in a hurry when I wasn't comfortable doing it. Not an excuse, it happened when it shouldn't have.

The manufacturing side for me is really frustrating which is why we decided to relaunch bumper as Cafelat, amongst other things we have really worked hard on new manufacturing techniques.

Drop me a PM or email through http://www.cafelat.com and I will make it up to you.

Paul

Wow - that was fast!

Thanks Marshall for helping out and Paul for getting back to me right away.

Yeah, I bought the tamper this past Saturday from one of the shops you list on the Bumper website. And I can appreciate how the manufacturing side can be frustrating. It's relatively cheap in this neck of the woods but quality and consistence is always an issue.

I took a look at Cafelat and you have some nice stuff there. And I see you have a fellow Dane helping with design

Cheers,
Claus

Marshall wrote:Knock-off, perhaps? I've notified Paul.

You mean these?



From our buddies in China.

Next we have Tiamo from Taiwan, found on an auction site.



There's quite a few more such as Italian Motta knockbox which looks a bit like mine as well

The problem with these items is that the numbers sold don't justify much in the way of IP protection.

Paul

A little 'closure' to this:

Paul did indeed get in touch with me the same day and I'm now the proud owner of one of the first "Cafelat" tampers.

I've been using it for a couple of weeks now and I must say that it's very nice. The Bumper tamper was fine but the finish is much better on the Cafelat and the handle feels just right - both for tamping and polishing:



And a top view:



Paul told me that they should be ready to ship soon so watch out for the Cafelat line in a shop near you!

C

Paul_Pratt wrote:Next we have Tiamo from Taiwan, found on an auction site.

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I saw one of these in a Tiamo store a couple of days ago. It was a 51mm. They were selling it for 1,080TWD.

Tiamo really annoys me. Anything they import, they jack up the price like crazy. Then they make knock-offs of other people's stuff, like Bodum and Bumper. It's a little contradictory. (Now, having said that, I'm not exactly the biggest opponent of knock-offs.)

I would agree that tampers, like many accessories are over-rated and hyped. Many parts are rebranded generics or, from a visual and technical point of view, indistinguishable from generic pieces. This apparently part of marketing. I think some good old-fashioned economic and ergonomic common sense ought to inform purchases.

Before I brought my extra plastic "came with my Oscar" tamper to use at work I was using the base of a small water glass that fit the PF nicely. Boy did it ever make a huge difference in taste! not.

My plastic tamper that came with the machine works better for me than the nice new shiny tamper I just bought. The light weight helps me get a better feel for the tamp. It seems when I use the plastic tamper, I almost never have channeling issues. Can't say that for my stainless steel tamper.