jesawdy wrote:Perhaps the nutating motion can actually help the distribution... Does any of this make any sense?

Absolutely. I didn't mean to imply that the nutating motion was exactly the same as downwards pressure from a concave tamper. But the overall pressure pattern seems concave rather than convex.

Nutating with a convex tamper... sheesh, I think that's illegal in most of the civilized world.
________
John

RapidCoffee wrote:Nutating with a convex tamper... sheesh, I think that's illegal in most of the civilized world.
________
John

You're probably right, totally uncivilized, and what are rules for anyway. Which could be why I too have been nutating with an American convex (RB) over 4 years.

Last week I stopped in at Espresso Parts NW which is about a half hour drive from where I live. I wanted to pick up a couple "tools" and was also interested in checking out the convex tamper. I purchased one of these with the short fat round rosewood handle and took it for a spin <or is that a twist?> when I got home. If I was Emeril, I'da hollered "BAM!" because my first shot after using the convex tamper was a perfectly even extraction. It was like I was transformed into a pro.

I was doing pretty well with the flat tamper and all the techniques I was learning here have been quite helpful. The reason I was interested in the convex was that I read somewhere that Schomer at Vivace decided it was a great anti-channeling tool because it forced the coffee to adhere to the side of the basket better during tamp. I thought about that for awhile and it made sense, so I sprung for the custom job. I occasionally have a slight bit of channeling, but it's my own fault for trying to shift the puck to level it after tamping <you know you've done this too > Even so, what is interesting is that even when I pull one of these goofs, the coffee appears almost right after across the entire mid section, salvaging the shot. I usually just pull for a shorter duration when this happens to insure I am not pulling too much of blonde bitter overextracted coffee along the side where the channeling is occurring.

I think that it is worth a try for anyone who hasn't used one. I swore by my heavy flat tampers for years and now I find it hard to not use the convex unit. I probably should video one of these globby, gloppy sweet ristrettos I am getting with this new tool.

By the way, Espresso Parts NW new store is pretty cool. There are alot of home & commercial, <new and old> machines, grinders, tools, etc, and a VW Van....yes a van in the store near the front counter.


olypdd

olypdd wrote:Last week I stopped in at Espresso Parts NW which is about a half hour drive from where I live.

I think I'm at the same time jealous you only live 30 minutes from EPNW and glad I don't, it could be dangerous!

Yes, I think I can understand what you mean. It's great to know that parts are close at hand. I don't throw money around, or at least don't need to since I have everything I need at this point.

olypdd