Hopefully this is a quick and easy one; I did a search and ended up with way more than I make sense of.

Does the amount of tamping pressure make that much difference as long as it's consistent and the grind has been adjusted for it?

Thanks!

As long as you're consistent, I don't believe it matters. Michael Teahan went much further to say that it really, really doesn't matter, whether the tamp pressure is 30 or 300 pounds for a given grind. That hasn't been my experience, as I'll sometime cheat by increasing / decreasing tamp pressure to account for a slight error in grind setting.

HB wrote:As long as you're consistent, I don't believe it matters. Michael Teahan went much further to say that it really, really doesn't matter, whether the tamp pressure is 30 or 300 pounds for a given grind. That hasn't been my experience, as I'll sometime cheat by increasing / decreasing tamp pressure to account for a slight error in grind setting.

Ditto.

Interesting: I have found that when the grind is right and fairly consistent, "reasonable" variations of tamping pressure (probably from 15-40lbs) don't make a huge amount of difference to the pour. I think If I tried very high tamping pressures then of course that would probably slow things down somewhat. My grinder burrs are pretty sharp, so I might find bigger differences as they wear I suppose?

Thanks for the replies.

It occurs to me that there are any number of variables to obsess about when making espresso. It gets worse after reading the forums awhile and makes one wonder how they'll ever all come together; I thought I'd at least try and nail one down.

There is lots of great info here...just info overload at times, but it's sure nice to be able to learn from all the great folks on the forums.

My Cafe Fresco Ambrosia (for me) and Cafe Fresco Luna Nuova Decaf (for my wife) arrived yesterday afternoon. Just pulled the first 3 doubles a few minutes ago...very nice, even on the first attempt.

My new Quick Mill Andreja Premium should be here Monday...woot! We'll see how the old dude holding the PF does then!

Yes and no, I think. I've had more success with a finer grind and a lighter tamp than a coarser grind and harder tamp. Tamping harder for me seems to encourage channeling. Dead on tamping pressure doesn't seem to matter, only hard or light by the feel of the grind compression.

There is most definitely a difference between a 10 pound tamp and a 90 pound tamp. At which point does the difference become undetectable? I don't know. I for one have a tendency to over tamp. It just feels more natural to me and because of that, I am more consistent with a heavy tamp. However, when the table creaks when I tamp, I may need to back off.

Lately I have been experimenting with down dosing, grinding finer and tamping less. I even gave up on the fancy distribution and tamping techniques. I just dose into the portafilter, knock the top of the mound down with a NSEW finger swipe (real fast swipe) and then lightly tamp. A light tamp for me is 20-30lbs. My shots are just as good and some blends behave even better.

Tamping appears to be a North America thing. Most cafes around the world simply use the grinder tamper to level off the dose and then pull the shot with good success. They just grind a little finer. Abe would be a good person to comment on this practice as he is in Rome right now.

Thanks for posting more.

I think I'm in the same camp as you Cannonfodder. I thought I was doing a typical 30# tamp and on a whim I grabbed the scales to measure. Not even close! More like 50#. When I tried to back off to 30# my tamping got very uneven. I think after several years of tamping at my normal level the muscle memory is too set in its ways.

If I had been completely honest about it my orginal post would have read...I've been tamping at 50# for years, is there really a profound reason (like the shots get a lot better) to change and consistently use a 30# tamp? I just didn't want to admit my heavy tamping habit in case the answer was a resounding "yes...you gotta get to 30#". Funny what we'll hide!

lblampman wrote:If I had been completely honest about it my orginal post would have read...I've been tamping at 50# for years, is there really a profound reason (like the shots get a lot better) to change and consistently use a 30# tamp?

There's nothing magical about 30 pounds of pressure. As the story goes, some pros tamped much harder and began suffering joint and shoulder problems. The lighter tamp advocated by pros is a practical necessity of avoiding occupational overuse syndrome / repetitive strain injury.

cannonfodder wrote:Lately I have been experimenting with down dosing, grinding finer and tamping less.

This is the route I've been taking as well.

I even gave up on the fancy distribution and tamping techniques. I just dose into the portafilter, knock the top of the mound down with a NSEW finger swipe (real fast swipe) and then lightly tamp.

I continue with the WDT and NSEW for marginally better results. The biggest advantage is probably using the yogurt cup to direct grounds into the pf, and it also stabilizes the pf between the Mazzer dozerless chute and the pf forks so I don't have extra steps and mess. I pre-weigh unground beans per shot.

A light tamp for me is 20-30lbs.

My tamp is probably closer to 10. I've shifted my priorities re consistency: First, is dose. Because it is confirmed by a scale, might as well take advantage of that as a non-variable. I find that the lighter tamp combined with the measured dose is easier to keep level than a heavy tamp. The goal, of course, is to make fewest possible changes in the workflow and accomplish most modifications with the grind.

My shots are just as good and some blends behave even better.

My shots are better, though I'm also on a new-machine learning curve getting used to many different dynamics (LaSpaz).
Martin