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Date: 31 Jul 2006 21:07:24
From: Davesport
Subject: Cafe's & Tamping coffee.
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Since buying my Silvia & waking up to espresso generally, I've been paying
more attention to what's served up in cafe's that I frequent. I've noticed
that every cafe I've been in in Edinbugh that the barista doses the
porta-filter & then presses the grounds up onto a plastic tamper fitted onto
the grinder that flattens the grounds into the basket. There is no effort
involved & nowhere near the 30 lbs of pressure that I'm attempting to use
myself.
IMHO the coffee produced tastes "ok" strong & full flavour, not bitter &
good crema.
Question: Am I missing something ?
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Date: 31 Jul 2006 17:18:56
From: Randy G.
Subject: Re: Cafe's & Tamping coffee.
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"Davesport" <davesport@fastmail.com > wrote:
>Since buying my Silvia & waking up to espresso generally, I've been paying
>more attention to what's served up in cafe's that I frequent. I've noticed
>that every cafe I've been in in Edinbugh that the barista doses the
>porta-filter & then presses the grounds up onto a plastic tamper fitted onto
>the grinder that flattens the grounds into the basket. There is no effort
>involved & nowhere near the 30 lbs of pressure that I'm attempting to use
>myself.
>
>IMHO the coffee produced tastes "ok" strong & full flavour, not bitter &
>good crema.
>
>Question: Am I missing something ?
>
What Danny and Robert said, and:
The most important thing is to be consistent, develop a routine that
can be repeated, than tweak it to match your beans, roast, machine,
grinder, preparation method, and most importantly, your palate.
You would be surprised at how easy it is to create a 30 pound tamp
with a slight upwards force. Still, I find that FOR ME a tamp of about
25 pounds works quite well. I had experimented and found that FOR ME
a 15-20 pound tamp necessitated a grind too fine which led to an
added bitterness to the cup- possibly from over-extraction or more
likely from the increased fines.
The correct tamping force is the one that creates a beverage that
pleases you. But experiment to find out what that is. Spend a week or
two tamping to 20, and then repeat it at 25, and continue like that to
see for yourself. After a month or two of that you will be able to
tell everyone else how wrong they are! ;-)
Randy "I was wrong... once. But not that time" G.
http://www.EspressoMyEspresso.com
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Date: 31 Jul 2006 21:48:41
From: Robert Harmon
Subject: Re: Cafe's & Tamping coffee.
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I've found that by foregoing the "30lb" for a leveling tamp I get more
consistent results. I've also been preinfusing lately & the results are
significantly better with a loose(ish) dose. Play with the grind until the
results are good.
--
Robert (duck & cover) Harmon
http://tinyurl.com/pou2y
http://tinyurl.com/fkd6r
"Davesport" <davesport@fastmail.com > wrote in message
news:44ce62fe@212.67.96.135...
> Since buying my Silvia & waking up to espresso generally, I've been paying
> more attention to what's served up in cafe's that I frequent. I've noticed
> that every cafe I've been in in Edinbugh that the barista doses the
> porta-filter & then presses the grounds up onto a plastic tamper fitted
> onto the grinder that flattens the grounds into the basket. There is no
> effort involved & nowhere near the 30 lbs of pressure that I'm attempting
> to use myself.
>
> IMHO the coffee produced tastes "ok" strong & full flavour, not bitter &
> good crema.
>
> Question: Am I missing something ?
>
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Date: 31 Jul 2006 21:13:56
From: Danny
Subject: Re: Cafe's & Tamping coffee.
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Davesport wrote:
> Since buying my Silvia & waking up to espresso generally, I've been paying
> more attention to what's served up in cafe's that I frequent. I've noticed
> that every cafe I've been in in Edinbugh that the barista doses the
> porta-filter & then presses the grounds up onto a plastic tamper fitted onto
> the grinder that flattens the grounds into the basket. There is no effort
> involved & nowhere near the 30 lbs of pressure that I'm attempting to use
> myself.
>
> IMHO the coffee produced tastes "ok" strong & full flavour, not bitter &
> good crema.
>
> Question: Am I missing something ?
>
>
Not necessarily. See my site below and look at the tamp debate link.
It's possible to adjust the grind so that tamp is all but replaced
with a slight levelling. Many here who used to tamp heavily are now
tamping much lighter, although there are of course proponents of both
light and heavy tamps. Freshly roasted and ground coffee are far more
important, together with a good quality burr grinder.
--
Regards, Danny
http://www.gaggia-espresso.com (a purely hobby site)
http://www.malabargold.co.uk (UK/EU ordering for Malabar Gold blend)
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Date: 01 Aug 2006 00:06:13
From: Ritske Rensma
Subject: Re: Cafe's & Tamping coffee.
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I've been noticing the same thing over the last few weeks. It's quite
funny to see that almost no caf=E9s use seperate tampers - I guess that
is mainly a home barsista obsession (what size do I get? 57 mm? 57.5mm?
57.8mm? :) ). Unfortunately, in all probability not all caf=E9s will
have adjusted the grind for the light tamp the person making the coffee
is bound to use with a tamper that is fixed to the grinder,
I live in Edinburgh too, by the way. Any recommendations for a
particularly fine espresso? I've kind of stopped having coffee outside
the safety of my own kitchen, due to a string of disapointments in the
past...=20
cheers ritske
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Date: 01 Aug 2006 23:45:35
From: Davesport
Subject: Re: Cafe's & Tamping coffee.
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I had an Macchiato at a place on the RHS (going up) of Lothian Rd opposite
the cinema & just along from & on the same side as McDonalds cycles. Lovely
barista & a V. good cup of coffee :-)) Nice comfy seats from which to watch
the world go by.
D.
"Ritske Rensma" <r.rensma@virgin.net > wrote in message
news:1154415973.170558.84560@s13g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
I've been noticing the same thing over the last few weeks. It's quite
funny to see that almost no cafés use seperate tampers - I guess that
is mainly a home barsista obsession (what size do I get? 57 mm? 57.5mm?
57.8mm? :) ). Unfortunately, in all probability not all cafés will
have adjusted the grind for the light tamp the person making the coffee
is bound to use with a tamper that is fixed to the grinder,
I live in Edinburgh too, by the way. Any recommendations for a
particularly fine espresso? I've kind of stopped having coffee outside
the safety of my own kitchen, due to a string of disapointments in the
past...
cheers ritske
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Date: 02 Aug 2006 19:59:41
From: Bertie Doe
Subject: Re: Cafe's & Tamping coffee.
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>"Ritske Rensma" wrote in message
>I live in Edinburgh too, by the way. Any recommendations for a
>particularly fine espresso? I've kind of stopped having coffee outside
>the safety of my own kitchen, due to a string of disapointments in the
>past...
>cheers ritske
There's a couple of Edinburgh liknks here http://tinyurl.com/kt8z2
Bertie
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Date: 03 Aug 2006 00:07:32
From: Ritske Rensma
Subject: Re: Cafe's & Tamping coffee.
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Thanks for the link, Bertie! Dave, which cinema do you mean? The odeon,
or the one more towards princess-street, which if my memory serves me
correctly is the Filmhouse? Then there's also the Cameo cinema,
although I don't think that's technically on Lothian road.
cheers ritske
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