I have recently seen (I think) a person just leveling a puck with a tool and then pulling a shot. No tamping.

Want to talk espresso but not sure which forum? If so, this is the right one.
icantroast
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#1: Post by icantroast »

Is this a thing? I'm a little confused. Don't you need to tamp? Thanks!

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Jeff
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#2: Post by Jeff »

Assuming you've got a good grinder, technique, the right coffee and a cooperative machine, a level dose in the basket is enough to pull a shot. The puck is about to be hit with over 400 pounds of force. I recall a barista showing his technique a decade or so ago, at the height of the Stockfleth maneuver's popularity.

For the rest of us mere mortals, homogenizing and evening out the grinds, followed by a firm, square-to-basket tamp is still considered important.

Edit: There are some who believe the spin-style levelers are sufficient. I'm not one of them, at least when excellent espresso is the goal.

learncoffee
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#3: Post by learncoffee »

I believe a few people here did not tamp. There had been discussions on this, which you will find using the search function.

We don't need no stinkin' tamper!

Marcelnl
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#4: Post by Marcelnl »

couple of years ago I saw a tiny lady pull espresso's atbreakneck speed in a rest zone along the Autostrada in Italy, she relied on the shower screen for everything after grinding, whackin in heaped PF's ....you know what, the double espresso was pretty good!
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yakster
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#5: Post by yakster »

-Chris

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Nunas
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#6: Post by Nunas »

I do this all the time using a cheap Chinese copy cloverleaf leveller that I got off Amazon https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01MS4 ... UTF8&psc=1. There actually is a bit of tamping using this, in a way. I grind directly into the portafilter, give it a few light whacks on the tamping stand, which spreads the grinds out quite well and removes any large voids. Then I put the leveller atop and turn it with increasing pressure until the handle part of the thing bottoms out on the top of the basket. I set the depth so that the puck is level, and I've used maybe 10# at the most of downward force by the end. The depth adjustment sometimes needs to be changed a bit for different beans. This results in a very flat puck that is dead nuts level. It also seems to put a bit of a concave finish on the puck, which is slight and not noticeable until the PF is removed. Using this technique and some preinfusion, I never have any channeling. My Synchronika has a brew pressure gauge, and it would show any channeling. Before I got this leveller I tamped, but only lightly. A long time ago, I tamped to about 30#, like most of the rest of us here probably did/do. My current technique is vastly superior to anything else I've done. Oh, and no more WDT.

DamianWarS
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#7: Post by DamianWarS »

icantroast wrote:Is this a thing? I'm a little confused. Don't you need to tamp? Thanks!
with the right and well-distributed grind the machine would apply more force than you ever can with a tamper so it sort of makes you wonder why bother to tamp at all

as pointed out there are threads about this like this one
To tamp or not to tamp...

Barista Hustle quotes Gwilym Davies saying he was forced to go sans tamper "A stagehand had moved the tamper, as it was in the way ... but [the shot] came out beautifully after I vertically tapped it lots of times". the video of this moment is on youtube (just after 1:00 to see the moment). Davies does a double-take and is caught off guard but because it's live television he just does a few taps and carries on and he recovers quite well considering that the tamper should have been there.

Davies is a pretty strong advocate for the puqpress but you can't argue with results. I think broadly at a bar top you should tamp and if it's a busy cafe then use something like a puqpress. but at home, I think it's a great way to develop puck prep because if your tampless shot is good then you've done something right.

Nate42
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#8: Post by Nate42 »

Over the years baristas have discovered that distribution prior to tamping (something that used to get almost no consideration at all) is quite a bit more important than the tamping itself. Take this to the logical extreme and why bother tamping at all? You can do it, and many people have had success. I personally am not a fan however. Mostly because of consistency. If you tamp until the puck is fully compressed, you should get pretty consistent results in terms of puck density from one shot to the next. If you use a light or no tamp technique, you are going to get some puck compression from your distribution method of choice, but exactly how much is going to be difficult to control. Also, I'm yet to hear of a tangible benefit to a no tamp technique (other than the obvious of not needing a tamper). Sure you can do it, but does it make your shot better in some way? Not that I'm aware of. So I'll stick with tamping, I feel like its easier and more consistent.
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dgasmd
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#9: Post by dgasmd »

Nate42 wrote:Over the years baristas have discovered that distribution prior to tamping (something that used to get almost no consideration at all) is quite a bit more important than the tamping itself. Take this to the logical extreme and why bother tamping at all? You can do it, and many people have had success. I personally am not a fan however. Mostly because of consistency. If you tamp until the puck is fully compressed, you should get pretty consistent results in terms of puck density from one shot to the next. If you use a light or no tamp technique, you are going to get some puck compression from your distribution method of choice, but exactly how much is going to be difficult to control. Also, I'm yet to hear of a tangible benefit to a no tamp technique (other than the obvious of not needing a tamper). Sure you can do it, but does it make your shot better in some way? Not that I'm aware of. So I'll stick with tamping, I feel like its easier and more consistent.
Completely agree with the above, but it is just my subjective personal opinion.

Few months ago, I came back to this site after several years of not being on coffee forums. Found out "levelers and other gadgets" had become the standard. Bought the cheappo amazon leveler version and tried that a few times. It did improve the coffee by taste alone. Then added a bit of wdt with a paper clip prior to the leveler, and again a bit more of an improvement. Was still using my Espro tamper. The, tried no tamping and after trying the 2nd shot I gave up due to the significant decrease inequality taste compared to even just tamping. Since then, I have added a Bravo Leveler and a Bravo tamper alone with a home made wdt tool, and I am very hard pressed to believe it does improve from here any more. All of the above with the same machine, grinder, coffee, and water!
Keep it simple and keep it enjoyable. It is about coffee, not quantum physics!