What is an espresso tamper?

It's function is mainly to pack in the finely ground coffee with a firm press or tamp.

Making an espresso requires high pressure of water and by tamping it well, you make sure that the water flows through the coffee grounds evenly and also helps even out the extraction rates on the espresso.

These factors of the tamper greatly affect if you will be having a nice crema or not.

Weight and Mass:

While the handle of the espresso coffee tamper is typically made of plastic, I don't really recommend this as tamping requires "feel" and if it's too light and cheap you might not be able to control it very well. I suggest going with one with a firm grip to it and one that weighs close to a pound.

Types:

The parts of the espresso tampers are the handle and its circular base which fits the porta-filter and is the one that makes contact with the coffee grounds.

There are three different types or designs and they are the flat base, a rounded base (convex) and an inverted (concave) base. Which one is better remains to be a debate but lately there have been awards going to the concave ones.

Material (handle):

The espresso tamper's handle may be made of wood, plastic or metal. I used to have a plastic tamper but I realized that getting one with a metal base gave me a much nicer and richer coffee flavor.

Sizes:

The espresso coffee tamper's size ranges from 49 to 58 millimeters. The usual size for home espresso machines are 49, 53, 58 mm. Make sure you take a look at the size of your porta-filter so you'd know the right size when you buy your tamper.

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