If you’re using an espresso machine, you need a coffee tamper. You’ll know this, but what you might not know is just how much impact the best coffee tampers can have on the quality of espresso you’ll produce at home.
If you weren’t aware, tamping is what you need to do with the coffee in the basket before inserting it into your espresso machine.
You apply pressure to the ground coffee beans in the basket, in the portafilter, to compress it prior to inserting the portafilter into the group and pulling the shot.
Portafilter simply means filter holder, by the way – and if you’re asking “well why don’t you refer to it as a filter holder?” the answer to that is that calling it a portafilter makes me feel more clever ;-).
This tamping is done with a tamper, funnily enough ;-), a small hand-held device with a round flat surface that matches the size of your portafilter, and a handle (usually, although there are flat, handle-free tampers too) often made of wood, for you to grip in order to tamp.
Tamping is a key part of the espresso-making process, and the “tampers” with which a lot of domestic espresso machines are shipped are a joke! Well, they’re not tampers at all.
If you’re buying an entry-level espresso machine, especially if it’s in the £100-£200 price range, it won’t come with a tamper, even though the marketing blurb will probably say that it does.
What these kinds of espresso machines usually come with, is a plastic thing with a scoop at one end and a flat circular plastic thing at the other end, which is supposed to be a tamper.
These devices, in my humble opinion, belong in the same category as chocolate tea pots & bikes for fish: utterly useless.
Although speaking of bikes for fish, have you ever seen a Gurnard?
Very strange looking sea-dwelling critter which is allegedly a fish, although I’ve often wondered if they’re actually lobsters in disguise, and which I suspect are possibly capable of bike riding.
They have wings, too, wings I tell you! Isn’t nature amazing?
Anyway, getting back on subject: If you’re using something like this (a plastic scoop tamper I mean, not a bike-riding fish) you’ll quite likely find that using a proper tamper will up your espresso game.
There are two main reasons for this:
Level Tamping. If you don’t get a level surface when you tamp, you’re more likely to suffer from channeling, where the water finds paths of lesser resistance in the coffee, leading to uneven extraction, and poor tasting espresso.
What you’ll find is that you just can’t get a proper grip on these plastic scoop tamper things, which doesn’t make them at all conducive to a level tamp.
Consistent tamping pressure. There are a number of variables to espresso-making, one of which is tamping pressure. If you don’t tamp at a fairly consistent pressure from one shot to the next, your shot consistency is likely to be “all over the shop”.
One of the main secrets to great espresso is consistency. You need to do the same thing every time, and when you’re changing things in order to improve the shot quality, you only want to change one thing at a time.
If you’re constantly changing tamping pressure (because you’re using a daft plastic scoopy tamper thing, or a fish, which would probably work just as well) you’ll never fully appreciate the impact of the changes you’re making.
For example, you might make the grind slightly finer because your shot is flowing too quickly, but then you tamp with less pressure than you did before, and not much changes with the flow rate.
To be fair, there is a knack to tamping even with proper tampers, switching to a decent tamper isn’t going to completely resolve tamping inconsistency, but it’ll certainly help in my humble opinion.
Not only will it help, but I believe that improving your tamper and therefore your tamping, is one of the low-hanging fruit where espresso making is concerned.
By low-hanging fruit, I’m talking about the best return with the least amount of investment.
Many people get something known as upgradeitis quite early on in the home barista journey and spend large amounts of money on seemingly more important bits of kit, namely on upgrading their espresso machine.
If only they knew that there are actually a number of key areas to improve, which can be improved with much less effort & investment than buying a more expensive espresso machine.
One of which is the simple and inexpensive action of improving their tamper and some of the others are equally as easy and similar in terms of cost!
So I’m going introduce you to what I believe to be some of the best coffee tampers now – but once you’ve chosen the best tamper for you & for your espresso machine, stick around so I can talk you through some of the others.
The Best Coffee Tampers
I’m going to split this into various tamper sizes because unfortunately, this isn’t a one size fits all thing. You need a tamper that fits your portafilter, and different espresso machines have different portafilter sizes.
So, below, you’ll find tampers categorized by the espresso machines they’ll fit. If your machine isn’t listed, just check the size of your portafilter, and you’ll then see which tampers you need to be looking at.
Please note, I’m putting each espresso machine into the appropriate category based on what I believe the tamper size to be.
I’d recommend you measure the size of your portafilter, and/or the useless tamper part of your plastic scoop, just in case I’m acting on incorrect or out-of-date information.
If you think I’ve got any of the machines below, in the wrong category, please do let me know, ta.
The Best 49mm Tampers
Compatible with:
Swan Retro Pump Espresso Machine
Amazon Basics Espresso Machine (all variants)
La Pavoni Europiccola (Pre-millennium only. For models from 2000 onwards you’ll need 51mm)
Check Price - Amazon UK
My Observations
There’s not a great deal to be said about this tamper really – it’s very much a tried and tested tamper combination this, a thick stainless steel flat base with a wooden handle. There are loads of very similar looking tampers.
I suspect a lot of them are, erm… “emulations” of the popular (and pricier) Motta tampers. Motta being a popular brand, needless to say there are lots of spookily similar tampers available online, often very inexpensive as is the case with this one.
The handle is Rosewood, the metal part is stainless steel, and it weighs 280g.
This is apparently a calibrated tamper. Calibrated to what, I can’t tell you – as the blurb doesn’t give this away – but I suspect that this is one of the calibrated tampers which isn’t really calibrated.
Basically, if you press it until it stops, there’s a stiff spring which is designed to help your temp to be more consistent, but whether we can actually call this calibrated – not sure, but they do.
If you’re looking for one that clicks at the calibrated pressure so you know exactly when you’ve hit that pressure, this isn’t that.
I’m not sure if there are any fully calibrated tampers like this at 49mm, but if I’m wrong and there are, let me know and I’ll include it here.
What else can I tell you about this tamper? It has a stainless steel base, and it weighs 320g, so quite heavy weight.
By the way, reading through the Amazon reviews for this and other tampers, I’m finding myself getting rather annoyed at the noun “tamper” being used as a verb. What’s wrong with me? I must need more coffee, or less.
But, I’ll take a deep breath, and very calmly state that “tamper” is the noun, the thing that you tamp with.
The action of tamping is a verb – you tamp coffee, you don’t tamper coffee – in the same way that you use a shaver to shave a beard, but you don’t shaver a beard, or maybe you do? ;-).
Check Price - Amazon UK
My Observations
This is another rosewood handle and stainless steel base pair, but a slightly different shape than usual, both the base and the handle. I’ve got a tamper very similar to this, and I like the look and feel of it.
I know, I’m a bit sad – but the way the base flares out, vs the flatter ones, makes it quite comfortable when you’re pushing down with your thumb on one side and the knuckle of your forefinger on the other, if that makes sense?
The Best 51mm Tampers
Compatible with:
DeLonghi Dedica EC680 & EC685
SMEG ECF01
La Pavoni Europiccola (Milennium models – 2000 and onwards)
Breville One-Touch CoffeeHouse
De’Longhi ECP35.31
Swan Scandi Style Espresso Machine
DeLonghi ECC221.B
Check Price - Amazon UK
My Observations
I quite like the look of this tamper from DeLonghi, and I have got one somewhere but I can’t find where I’ve put it…
Anyway, it’s the standard wooden handle and stainless steel base configuration, and it’s 50mm to fit the DeLonghi (and others) portafilters.
It’ll fit many of the other machines which have a 51mm portafilter, including the Smeg espresso machine as listed above, which appears very – VERY… similar in many ways to the much cheaper DeLonghi Dedica espresso machine only with a more pricey looking shell…
Reminds me of the bloke I’ve seen driving around in what appears to be a Bentley, which is actually a Chrysler. It’s not one of the body kits either, just a badge and alloys I think, haha, I think he’s done it tongue in cheek to be fair.
Anyway, this 51mm tamper from DeLonghi is actually the best selling tamper on Amazon UK at the time of writing.
I can’t find the one I bought for the DeLonghi Dedica espresso machine I reviewed a while ago, but I can remember that I was quite impressed with the tamper in terms of look and feel.
For more on the Dedica, see:
DeLonghi Dedica Review
Check Price - Amazon UK
My Observations
This one is has a similar shaped handle to the Edesia tamper above, but a slightly more standard shaped base – and comes with a tamper mat, for the tamper to sit in.
The blurb states this is to protect the base from the kitchen worktop, but come on, it’s stainless steel!
I reckon the worktop probably needs protecting from it, not the other way around ;-), but in any case, has a mat to put it in. It apparently weighs 340g, so quite heavy weight.
Just keep in mind if you’re buying this one that they also sell a 58mm one, so make sure you don’t accidentally select that one.
Check Price - Amazon UK
My Observations
I really like the look of these tampers – again I quite like the flared shape of the top of the base, the bit where you’ll rest your thumb and forefinger.
These are height adjustable which simply means that you can remove the silver ring to make the handle slightly shorter. It weighs 354g, and it seems like quite a lot of tamper for the money.
The Best 53mm Tampers
Compatible with Sage espresso machines with 54mm portafilters:
Sage Duo Temp Pro
Sage Bambino
Sage Bambino Plus
Sage Barista Express
Sage Barista Pro
Sage Barista Touch
Check Price - Amazon UK
My Observations
As I mentioned when talking about the smaller version of this tamper above, this is a walnut-handled tamper, with a handle shape that I find quite comfortable.
Also the way the top of the stainless steel base flares out, too, makes this design of tamper quite comfortable on your thumb and forefinger or the knuckle of your forefinger depending on your tamping style.
Check Price - Amazon UK
My Observations
Another calibrated tamper, which possibly isn’t actually calibrated as such, but has a stiff spring which is designed to help your tamping to be more consistent.
I’m not having a go at these tampers, by the way – the properly calibrated ones which click when they hit the weight they’re calibrated to, are a lot more expensive.
I’m just not quite sure they should be being sold as calibrated if they’re actually not.
They do seem to do the job quite though, of helping with more consistent tamping.
Check Price - Shop Coffee
My Observations
This is an adjustable tamper that allows you to choose a tamping pressure of between 15 – 21Kg.
I wouldn’t personally want to tamp to over 15Kg, but some do, there are some pro baristas out there who prefer to tamp at a higher pressure.
With this Aluminium tamper, you can play around with it and see which pressure seems to work best – if you can’t tell any difference, I’d say save your wrists and put it on the lowest pressure setting.
Check Price - Amazon UK
My Observations
Quite a nice looking shaped tamper, and quite heavyweight at 260g.
The brand name Omgogo sounds like some long-extinct colourful and interesting looking feathered yet flightless bird.
The firm who sell this are called Ombobo, which makes me giggle, because the G and B are, obviously, above each other on the keyboard, and I can’t help but think that either the brand name or the company name is a typo! ;-).
The Best 57mm Tampers
Compatible with:
Lelit Anna
Lelit Anita
Check Price - Amazon UK
My Observations
Not a great deal to say about this really, a fairly standard looking tamper with a wooden handle and stainless steel base. I’m not sure if the weight is correct, it says 399g which would make it particularly heavy weight!
Very happy to see from the product details that the capacity is 1ml…?? 😉
You know, part of my job – back when I had one and I couldn’t just sit around and write about coffee all day – was writing product descriptions. I’m sure I would have made the odd typo, but sometimes I do scratch my head at the kind of stuff I read in product descriptions.
Check Price - Amazon UK
My Observations
This is a Lelit tamper, Aluminium handle with stainless steel base, and very specifically 57.35mm, to perfectly fit the Lelit 57mm baskets for the Lelit Anna & Lelit Kate.
It’s apparently only 20g of being half a Kilo, flipping Nora! That’s what you call a heavyweight tamper.
I’m not sure it’s correct, most of the weight will be in the base with it being an Aluminium handle, as Alu is lightweight. So if you buy one, please weight it and let me know. Ta 🙂
Check Price - Amazon UK
My Observations
Another Lelit tamper, and this one is all stainless steel, yet at 250g apparently lighter than the one above which has an Aluminium handle, which amplifies my suspicions that this tamper does not have an auto shut off… 😉
The Best 58mm Tampers
Compatible with most other espresso machines, including:
Gaggia Classic
Rancilio Silvia
Rancilio Silvia Pro
Sage Dual Boiler
Nuova Simonelli Oscar, Oscar II, Musica
All other Lelit Machines other than Anna & Anita
All Profitec espresso machines
All ECM espresso machines
All Rocket espresso machines
All Bezzera espresso machines
All La Marzocco espresso machines
All Expobar espresso machines
Check Price - Shop Coffee
My Observations
I have to say, I do like the unusual look of this tamper from Espresso Gear.
Yes, I’m sad, we’ve already ascertained that – but there’s quite a big difference between this tamper and most others, which is that the rosewood handle flares out.
So this is what your finger and thumb will mainly come into contact with when tamping, instead of the metal base, which I hazard a guess would be quite a nice comfortable tamp.
Check Price - Amazon UK
My Observations
These tampers from Motta are very much what I’d class as a standard tamper.
They’re the very normal tamper shape, with a wooden handle & a stainless steel base. As you’ll see shortly, Motta do explore the slightly unusual when it comes to tamper shapes.
This one, however, is about as usual as you can get for a tamper.
Check Price - Shop Coffee
My Observations
Now then, this is one of a few Motta tampers you’re bound to find here, given that Motta are one of the leading brands of barista accessories, but this one has a completely different handle shape than most tampers I’ve seen.
The handle, as you can see, is ball-shaped. Why they’ve called it “bubble shaped” I’m not sure, the first thing that springs to my mind when I think of a solid round object is a ball, not a bubble.
Maybe Motta are concerned that if they call it a “Ball Tamper” rather than a “Bubble Tamper”, some members of the public will take this literally, misunderstanding what it is you’re supposed to be squishing with this thing, which is, of course, ground coffee beans.
Anyway, it looks cool, and given that I am already starting to build up a bit of a tamper collection, I might just have to get myself one of these.
Check Price - Shop Coffee
My Observations
This is a flat push tamper, named so because of the fact that it’s flat, and you push it ;-).
It’s basically a palm tamper, so instead of having a tamper which requires you to grip a handle and press down, you can push down with the palm of your hand, or I suppose any part of your anatomy providing you’re careful to keep it level.
Your elbow, maybe – or perhaps even your chin if you’re that way inclined, although I think most people would probably opt to use the palm of their hand.
Check Price - Amazon UK
My Observations
This is the 58mm version of the Diguo Elegance tamper I mentioned earlier, with its adjustable height handle which is done by adding or removing the metal washer. Quite a nice looking tamper I think, and looks good for the money.
Check Price - Shop Coffee
My Observations
Another tamper from the well known coffee gear brand Motta, but this one has a slightly different shaped handle, maybe one to try if you haven’t got on with more standard handle shapes.
This is another great deal from Shop Coffee, as this is a really well known brand, who produce some decent stuff, and this tamper is cheaper than some of the other non-branded (or branded with unknown brand names) tampers.
EDO Barista Tamper Baby Pink – 58mm
Check Price - Shop Coffee
My Observations
Another pro 58mm tamper from shop coffee, and I’m including this one in particular because, well, you don’t see many baby pink coffee tampers!
Having said that, in addition to the colour, it looks like a decent tamper too, with Aluminium handle and stainless steel flat 58mm base, and it’s available in a range of other colours if you’re not a big fan of baby pink. Click here to see the other colours.
OK so that’s my advice on tampers, and as you can see there are loads & loads to choose from – and really, you can’t go wrong, as long as you’re selecting the right tamper for your portafilter.
Well, I suppose you can buy a tamper that you’re not all that blown away by, in terms of comfort. For example, you might find that the type of handle doesn’t quite suit you.
Maybe you have massive sausage fingers and need a tamper handle the size of a rolling pin, or maybe you have slightly more dainty hands?
We’re all different, and thankfully there are lots of different kinds of tampers to choose from, and they’re among the most inexpensive part of the necessary home barista kit, so if you do need to replace your tamper further down the line, it’s not a huge deal.
If you’re looking for bigger jumps in your home espresso game, though, once you’ve got yourself a better tamper, the next thing I’d consider is the grinder situation.
While tamping is important, grinding is arguably THE key to espresso quality, second only to the coffee itself I’d say.
If you’re currently using pre-ground coffee, freshly grinding your own coffee beans will be a step in the right direction.
If you’re already grinding your own, but you’re using a grinder that belongs in the same chocolate teapot category as the plastic scoop tamper, improving your coffee grinder is often the best way to improve results.
For more on this see:
Best Burr Coffee Grinders
As I’ve just mentioned, another surprisingly underrated (and obvious, you’d think, but it seems not) way to improve your espresso quality is to improve on the quality of the coffee you’re using.
It’s amazing really how many people don’t get this. If you put rubbish in, you’ll get rubbish out.
You can have the best grinder and the best coffee machine but unless you’re using great coffee, you won’t get great espresso.
If you didn’t know, as well as coffeeblog, I run The Coffeeworks, supplying amazing quality coffee beans, in my humble and OK, biased, opinion.
Yes, I’m going to say my coffee is amazing, but if you knew more about the process that goes into choosing these coffees, you’d possibly better understand where I’m coming from when I say this.
The Coffeeworks began as a project involving coffee bloggers (coffee blog readers – so that now includes you), in which I ran a series of polls to find out what readers were looking for.
A lot of this included what flavour profiles people were looking for, as I didn’t want to only end up with a range of coffees that I love, I need customers to love them too.
But all of the major decisions were made with reader’s opinions in mind, including seemingly unimportant decisions like which pouches to go for, and delivery options.
And with all of the coffees including the new increased range, I spent a lot of time tasting lots of different coffees via various brewing methods, as well as cupping. I know, it’s a tough job, but someone has to do it ;-).
So when I say this is amazing coffee, I’m not just saying that as a business person who wants you to buy his products.
If you’ve not tried my coffee before, below is a discount code that gives you a quarter off any of my coffee beans:
Use discount code CBNC25 for 25% off your first order at Coffeeworks
And once you’ve used the code above, by the way, as a returning customer (which, thankfully most customers are, as this really is great coffee!) use the discount code: coffeebotherers for 10% off all of your future orders.
Another very often overlooked yet hugely important part of espresso-making, is distribution.
I’m not going to properly get into the discussion of distribution here, because it’s a topic for another completely separate post, but I’ll briefly introduce you to distribution just in case it’s something you’ve not yet come across.
Distribution means exactly what it sounds like it means, the even distribution of the coffee in the basket. There are obviously masses of particles of ground coffee beans in a portafilter basket, in fact I’ve counted them and there are approximately… haha, you didn’t fall for that did you? ;-).
I’ve not counted them… Although, I did count how many coffee beans there are in the standard espresso basket, and in an 18g dose there’s usually approximately 120-150 coffee beans, depending on the varietal, roast profile and so on.
There’s some completely useless info for you. You’re welcome :-).
Anyway, these particles can gather in clumps, and this is especially true with certain grinders, even more so with grinders towards the entry level. Distributing the coffee essentially means to break up the clumps and more evenly distributing the ground coffee.
When you see baristas performing various strange-looking rituals, such as knocking the portafilter with the tamper, or their hand, or doing the L for loser sign and rotating their thumb and forefinger over the coffee like some deranged individual trying to mock the coffee he or she has just dosed into their portafilter… these are all manual distribution methods.
The best distribution method in my humble opinion, and one of the most popular over the past few years, is called the WDT, or the Weiss Distribution Technique.
This started out as a technique involving a pointy implement, like a needle, and stirring up the grounds in the basket, in concentric circles.
Loads of people have developed the technique and made it their own, and the majority of people these days use some form of multi-pronged pointy implement, and these are generally known as “WDT tools”.
There are also leveler tools, which I believe started out with the OCD leveler, and now there are lots of similar devices to this, but I think it’s important to point out that these kinds of tools don’t quite do the same as WDT.
These tools work on the surface only, and they do nothing with distribution, even though they’re often sold as “distribution tools” or “coffee distributors”, they level the surface, so they’re levelers.
If you want to use a leveler, no problem – but I’d use one as well as a WDT tool, not instead of, as they do a different job.
Remember, you could also brush your hair with your toothbrush, but you probably wouldn’t? Each to their own! ;-).
Some of the Best WDT Tools
I’m only including a few WDT tools here, as there are so many hitting the market at the moment, and many of them are very similar. Watch this space, as I’ll create a separate review post for WDT tools in the future and link to it from here.
Check Price - Etsy
My Observations
I make no apologies for the fact that I’m obsessed with coffee ;-), I’m sure you’d expect nothing else from someone who actually makes his living from writing & talking about it all day! So, as you can probably imagine, I have lots of coffee tools & accessories, including WDT tools.
There are a couple of ways I think you can go with WDT – single tool or two tools.
There’s the deeper part of the WDT process which means distributing all the way down to the very bottom of the basket, and then there’s what’s known as surface raking, where you deal with the surface specifically. So you can use one specific tool for each, or one tool for both.
Some people believe that you should use a slightly thicker pronged WDT tool (around 0.4mm generally) for the deeper WDT, but then for the surface, a thinner tool should be used, around 0.2-0.25mm.
To be perfectly honest, I don’t know whether using one slightly thicker tool for the deeper WDT and then a thinner pronged tool for the surface makes any difference to likelihood of channeling (which is the main thing we’re trying to combat with WDT).
It could, in theory, and I know some folk think that it does make a difference – I’ve not actually been able to tell if it does or not, and I’ve not done enough specific research into this as yet to tell you whether using two tools is better than one.
What I do believe however is that any WDT is better than none, for reducing the chances of channeling, and that while a two tooled approach might not actually be any better than one, I don’t believe it can do any harm.
In theory you could use a thinner pronged tool for both, but I find the thinner needles are a bit too flimsy for deeper WDT, they end up bending, and when they do this I think you potentially end up messing up the higher areas with the bending prongs while distributing the deeper areas. I may be wrong.
You could also use one tool for the deeper WDT, and then an OCD type leveler for the surface.
Personally, I either use the one tooled WDT approach, or the two tooled approach, depending on where I am and how much time I have – but my favourite tool for both the two tooled and the one tooled approach is this one.
There are various other similar tools with similar needle size, but this one seems nice and sturdy, it comes with a stand which I find handy, you can change the needle setup (if you want to) and the number of needles/pins used.
Re the stand, the version above comes with a stand, but if you prefer you can buy the version which sticks onto the side of your espresso machine:
Check Price - Etsy
Check Price - Etsy
My Observations
This is the WDT tool I usually use in conjunction with the above if I’m using a two-tooled approach.
I’ve tried other thinner tools, including one that I paid about fifty quid for, and this is my favourite among the ones I’ve tried.
It’s sturdy, none of the needles have fallen out (unlike with the fifty quid one!), and it has a magnetic hanging loop which allows me to stick it on the side of my Sage dual boiler, which is very handy.
This includes custom engraving (the imagery above is just an example) which makes this a nice gift idea for coffee lovers, and for more of these see:
Best Gift Ideas for Coffee Lovers
The Best Coffee Tampers – Conclusion
I know, I’ve covered quite a bit more than purely coffee tampers in this post – but I’ve done this simply because many people know they need a proper tamper to improve their espresso, but don’t realize that there other very simple ways that you can also up your espresso game.
Making one of the improvements above, using better coffee, improving your grinder or using a better tamper will help you to improve your results, but making all of these changes will produce exponential results, leading you on the path to espresso heaven!
It’s fair to say that improving your espresso machine is another component to this, but I’m holding back on that advice in the post simply because I think most people who’re looking for the best coffee tamper, will be people who’ve literally just bought an espresso machine.
To a certain degree, regardless of what your espresso machine is, you could always upgrade it, and becoming a home barista often comes with the pandemic condition known as upgradeitis.
So rather than to annoy the heck out of you by suggesting that even though you may have just bought an espresso machine, you need to upgrade it already.
What I’d suggest, is that you focus the upgradeitis on the areas of greatest return for the smallest investment, which would be the coffee, the grinder & the tamper.
If you are already at the point of upgrading your espresso machine, though, see:
Best Home Barista Espresso Machines
Before I sign off, just to deal with a few commonly asked questions:
How hard should you tamp coffee?
You’ll have probably heard the “30 pounds of pressure” thing – and this, in my humble opinion, is about as realistic as Dragons, Unicorns & the “£350 million a week to the NHS” bus ad.
I’m sure it came with good intentions, but I just don’t think it’s particularly useful – or true.
You can buy a calibrated tamper if you like, which will click when you’ve hit the pre-set pressure, which in some cases is 30 pounds, or with the adjustable pressure tamper above you can select from a couple of different pressures. Otherwise, though, I’d just ignore any reference to pounds or KG of pressure, and simply push the tamper until you feel the coffee stops moving.
The most important things about tamping, are a level surface, and consistency. So just tamping in a way that you’re able to do consistently each time, just applying pressure until you can tell that the tamper has stopped compressing the grounds, while ensuring that the tamper is completely level, is fine.
The reason it’s important to get a level surface is that an uneven surface can promote channeling, which is what happens when water under pressure finds paths of least resistance through the coffee, leading to uneven extraction and therefore poor tasting espresso, or at least poorer than it would have tasted if it hadn’t have channeled.
What type of coffee tamper is best?
This is completely down to the individual. I personally prefer handled tampers to flat tampers, and I prefer heavier weight bases with wooden handles. I’m not a big fan of the all-metal tampers, as I just find wood is a bit nicer to hold than metal, but each to their own.
One thing I would say, is that I really don’t like plastic tampers – and that there should be a rule against brands calling a scoop with a flat bottom, a tamper. A lot of domestic espresso machines come with these flat bottomed scoops which supposedly double as tampers, and these are about as useful as something really not all that useful.
I really like Sage Sage coffee machines and one of the great things about them, apart from the fact that they’re usually really clever machines and punch way above their weight in terms of value for money, is that they usually come with proper tampers.
The latest machine from them, though, the Bambino – the base level of the Bambino Plus, comes with a plastic tamper!
It’s like a toy version of their usual metal tamper, which I think is a shame, but apparently was necessary in order to achieve the desired lower RRP.
But anyway – if you buy the Bambino or any espresso machine which comes with a plastic tamper, I’d highly recommend buying a proper tamper (and you’ll need a 53mm tamper for the Bambino).
The Gaggia Classic Pro comes with a plastic tamper too, you’ll need a 58mm tamper for that – although the limited edition (they’re just releasing 3000 of them, all numbered) while available, come with a barista kit including a proper wooden-handled tamper.
For more on this (including details on the limited edition run) see:
Gaggia Classic Pro Review
Are all coffee tampers the same size?
No, tampers vary in size to reflect the size of the portafilter that comes with your coffee machine, which is why I’ve categorized the tampers above into the most common sizes.
It’s worth keeping in mind too, that while in most cases, the tamper is the same size as the portafilter, this isn’t always the case.
Some baskets are slightly tapered or have a ridge in them, which means that you need a slightly smaller tamper, which is why for example the tampers for Sage portafilters are usually 53mm and not 54mm.
If you’re in doubt, just have a quick google for “best tamper size for <insert your espresso machine here>”, and you’ll usually find others have already answered this question on forums, Reddit & so on.
Is a bigger portafilter better?
Not really. There’s lots of debate about portafilter size and shape, and while some assume that the larger 58mm portafilter size is better because this is what most professional machines use, this isn’t necessarily because it’s the best, it’s more about standardization.
The E61 espresso group was released in the early 60s, and has a 58mm group, it became very popular, so when other people were developing other groups for other espresso machines, 58mm probably just made sense to stick with this size as a standard, which is why most (not all) professional espresso machines tend to have 58mm baskets.
How do you choose a coffee tamper?
As I said earlier, the tamper is among the cheapest home barista tool, so I wouldn’t worry too much about it – just pick one that you like the look of, that has some good reviews, and if you don’t like it for whatever the reason, then great – something to drop hints to friends and family about in the run up to Christmas or Birthdays ;-).
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This article firstly appeared at Coffee Blog – The UK Specialty Coffee Blog – For Lovers of REAL Coffee!
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