Tamp
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A tamper is a hand-held device with a flat or convex base used during the preparation of a shot of espresso to compress ground coffee into a puck, within the portafilter's basket. Tampers vary in weight, diameter, and design. Generally, the diameter should match that of the basket, and the weight of ornamental designs is of personal preference.
To tamp is the action of tamping the coffee into the basket. This is a small art-form in itself, with espresso fanatics going to great lengths to achieve the perfect puck, and prevent the pitfall of uneven extraction that occurs with uneven compression of the coffee. It is not unusual for the tamping process to involve several steps, including compression with different tamps, at different pressures.
Given uniformly ground coffee, and a good espresso machine, the most important remaining process step controlled by a barista is tamping. Providing a consistent level tamp is very important to making espresso: if your tamp force or angle varies, your shot will vary. Two choices are available for ensuring a consistent tamp: tamping with an ornamental tamper on a small scale such as a bathroom scale or using an automatic 30lb tamper. Increasing the tamping pressure will increase the brew time of a shot of espresso, and thus increase the extraction from the coffee - hence the need to maintain consistency.
