Using the right tamper for your basket brings results
Using the right tamper for your basket brings results
This week I took delivery of a new 53mm tamper, to be used with my mypressi TWISTTM
A common gripe amongst domestic coffee machine owners is that the plastic tamper provided in the box is not fit for purpose, and sadly the mypressi ships with one of these too.
Fundamentally, plastic tampers are flawed
Fundamentally, plastic tampers are flawed, often ill fitting, flexible and any attempt to apply pressure renders the tamper useless.
53mm Tamper
An opportunity appeared to purchase a 53mm tamper with all the attributes I was looking for (heavy, flat base, short black handle) for a bargain price so I snapped it up.
Eager to ‘taste the difference’ I fired up the jug, hand ground 18g of coffee, pre-heated the mypressi, dosed and tamped with the plastic tamper.
A very acceptable double was poured, although slightly quicker than I was hoping for, taking just over 21 seconds to extract.
Repeating the grind and dosing process, this time I used the new, well fitting metal based tamper. Almost effortlessly the puck was formed, compressed with gravity and a nudge (vs brute force with the plastic tamper). A twist sealed the puck and the reservoir locked into place.
26 seconds later a gorgeous double shot had been extracted.
Brewed naked, there was less blonding and a more even extraction, resulting in a slightly sweeter cup with a noticeably better body.
Measuring extraction
The extraction % (measured using the MoJoToGo iPhone App) was improved from 18.2% to 19.6%, with 3 subsequent extractions over the next 20 minutes reading 19.7%, 19.5% and 19.6% respectively.
Eager to see if the original extraction readings were flawed in any way I tried again with the plastic tamper and the result was 18.2% so fairly consistent with the first reading taken.
My conclusion, the additional pressure leveraged from using the metal tamper improved the extraction, and noticeably affected the taste too.
I’m now keen to try this theory with other ‘ill fitting tampers’ to see what the impact is.
However, my new tamper is not likely to see use in the next week as I will be working on improving my Aeropress technique. Suggestions and brewing methods gratefully accepted. Better still, if you have any stored recipes on your MoJoToGo that you would like to share then email me (shootme at 5mcoffee.com)
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