I have a question: i've been using a reg barber for some time. But, I've always been confused as to whether I should tap the pf to knock the grinds off of the side of the basket after tamping before a second tamp and polish. If I should tap, do I tap using the wooden handle, or the plastic inlay? So far, I've tapped using the wood, but the drawback is that the tamper gets nicked over time. I'm worried that if I switch to tapping using the plastic inlay it will eventually loosen and fall out.

Any suggestions?

Mike

grasshopper wrote:I've always been confused as to whether I should tap the pf to knock the grinds off of the side of the basket after tamping before a second tamp and polish.

I've never been able to understand the virtues of tapping. If coffee grounds on the sides of the filter basket bother you, brush them lightly with your fingertip to loosen, and then briefly invert the PF to discard. Or ignore them - they should not have any negative impact on your shot.

Tapping OTOH can disrupt the integrity of the puck. If you're tapping hard enough to knick the wooden handle or loosen a plastic insert on your tamper, I'd guess that you're tapping hard enough to channel your puck by breaking the adhesion to the filter basket. If you must tap, tap lightly! But try not tapping at all. You might find your shots improve.
________
John

I use to tamp, then tap with the side of the tamper base (and then in some cases tip the basket over to get rid of the dislodged grounds), and then do a finish tamp. It wasn't until I created a naked PF that I noticed that I occasionally was getting side channeling and blond gushers. So I too think this potentially disrupts the integrity of the puck depending on how hard you tap.

Now I do an initial tamp and then a lighter NSEW tamp that scraps down the sides of the basket and then a finish polish. I never have any side channeling problems and the rare time I have a blond gusher it's from overfilling the basket (and hitting the puck against the dispersion screen).

I tap with the side of the tamper base against the portafilter locking lugs, lightly. No real reason, that is just how I learned so that is what I do.

I gently tap the basket on the counter to loosen the grounds on the sides then do a finish tamp and polish.


Jeff

I don't tap with the tamper. I do tap BEFORE tamping, to settle the grounds. First I distribute the grounds and level-off. Then I gently tap the basket straight down on the counter to settle the grounds. Then I tamp with no further tapping.

Works for me anyway.

I do an initial light tamp followed by a little tap, just to loosen grinds stuck on the side of the filterbasket. And then finish of with the real power tamp

But I guess the tap could loosen the puck and lead to channeling?

Oh, and I tap with the top of the handle on my Ergopacker

Thomas

Espresso Distribution & Tamp "Nutating Motion"


From the Tamp and Dose Techniques Digest thread.

I voted "other". I do lightly tap from the side to slightly settle grounds after filing. then Stockfleths, light level tamp, then couple light vertical downward taps of the PF against counter to knock down any strays, followed by med nutating tamp, final firm level tamp, very light pressure polish.

"He's a tapper, She's a tapper, wouldn't you like to be a tapper too."

Okay, I usually tap, but decided not to the last few days and just invert the portafilter to discard the loose grounds. Seems to work just fine. And none of the "ashy taste from the loose grounds heating faster". .... whatever.

-Jeff

cannonfodder wrote:Espresso Distribution & Tamp 'Nutating Motion'

bad BAD cannonfodder!! bad boy. bad. bad bad baddity bad.


never never ever bang on the locking lugs of the portafilter with anything metal.


and, fwiw, the "nutating motion" technique just gives me the willys... <shudder>

HB wrote:It could be a lot worse...

Wow! Good one Dan. Anyone count the whacks? I lost track at 3 dozen.

HB wrote:It could be a lot worse..

Where and how did you find that?! Hilarious in so many different ways... we had tapping, nutating, "tempting" and so much more. Do think she was worrying about side-channeling? Sheesh.

jesawdy wrote:... we had tapping, nutating, "tempting" and so much more.

Wait, don't tell me.... Bangkok, Thailand?

HB wrote:Go to youtube.com, search on espresso, barista, or coffee. Lots of silly stuff, some serious stuff.

PS: I prefer google videos for hosting because they don't watermark the image and the sound syncs better with the video, but they take longer to "verify" them. YouTube assumes that members will police the content so uploads are live in a few minutes.

I police the videos in the Coffee and Espresso group. Easy to find the serious stuff there. I search through almost every page of videos returning a hit to coffee, espresso, or something related.

If someone is putting out quality stuff, I'll invite them in.

But yeah.. I generally don't tap.. I do the pre-tamp tap thing at home. I don't at work. I'm really not sure why. I think it's just easier to do with a naked PF than with a double spouted PF.

I tap but very slightly so as to not loosen the coffee I just sealed against the puck. I only do it if there is a quantity of loose coffee around the sides, but I may start dumping that back in the doser before I polish things off as I would rather not risk loosening the seal I just accomplished.

Rich