Making delicious coffee drinks at home can be fun and easy with an espresso machine.
In this tip I will teach you how to tamp coffee so that it is ready to be mixed with the hot water.
Making delicious coffee drinks at home can be fun and easy with an espresso machine.
In this tip I will teach you how to tamp coffee so that it is ready to be mixed with the hot water.
Difficulty | Cost | Time | Age | Person | Event |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Easy
|
$25 to $50
|
30 Minutes
|
-- | -- | -- |
The grounds are likely to be heaped up in the portafilter. They need to be more evenly distributed so that the coffee can be evenly extracted- this can be done by gently tapping the portafilter on the grinder forks or with the palm of the hand, to create a more level spread of coffee. Alternatively, the grounds can also be distributed by sweeping a flat tool or finger back and forth across the basket, front to back and side to side (this way creates the most even distribution, but is more time consuming).
Rest the portafilter on a steady surface whilst holding the handle. You can rest it on the spouts, but a single spout portafilter will be unstable like this and the spouts are likely to become dirty quickly this way. A better way is to rest the portafilter on the edge of a surface, resting the spouts against the vertical edge and underneath the portafilter head against the horizontal surface, keeping the portafilter level.
Hold the tamper in your hand like a door handle, with the end of the handle in your palm and your fingers wrapped around the top of the base. Make sure the base of the tamper is dry; if it is wet, dry coffee will stick to it, creating a gap in the compressed coffee
Place the base of the tamper onto the ground coffee, keeping it level with the basket edge- you can feel this with the edge of your fingers, and apply firm pressure. Give the tamper a short twist, this will reduce the amount of loose grounds after tamping.
Remove the tamper- job done. There may be loose grounds on the side of the basket and on top of the ground coffee; that’s fine. If there are any grounds on the on the top edge of the basket and the ears, these need to be wiped off, if not they will cause extra wear on the group seals. Do not be tempted to tap the edge of the portafilter to dislodge any loose grounds from around the side- it can cause cracks and gaps to open up inside the compressed bed of coffee and cause channelling.
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