The tamping station in two lines
The tamping station is a stainless steel block of 11 x 8 x 4cm that the portafilter rests on while tamping. It has the recess that leaves the spouts free, so the force goes down on the rim of the basket rather than on the most fragile part of the piece.
Who it is for
For anyone tamping dozens of times a day, that is any bar making coffee seriously. It is an accessory almost always bought after seeing the damage, and it costs a fraction of what it protects.
What it protects, and there are two things
The first is the portafilter. Tamping on a flat surface puts the weight on the spouts, which stick out underneath and are the thinnest part of the piece: over time they bend or develop play at the joint, and a bent portafilter no longer seats properly in the group. The tamping station keeps those spouts hanging in the air. The second is the bar top: tamping straight onto a steel or stone surface marks it, and the marks appear exactly where the guest is looking. Here the whole load goes onto a replaceable block costing a few euros.
Specifications
- Material: stainless steel
- Dimensions: 11 x 8 x 4cm
- Weight: 0.4kg
- Use: portafilter rest while tamping
How much force is actually needed
Trade practice talks about 15 to 20kg of push, which is more than most people imagine and is why the movement has to be carried by something. The figure matters less than the consistency though: two coffees tamped with different force run at different rates even on the same grind, and repeatability is what separates a bar that works from one that guesses. A fixed rest helps with exactly that, because the movement always starts from the same position.
Choose the tamping station if
The bar top is new and you do not want to mark it, the portafilters have already started to develop play, or several people with different habits work the station. It is also the first accessory to put in a training station, where there are many hands and none of them is accurate yet.
Where it goes on the bar
Between the grinder and the machine, on the side of the tamping hand, so the path is dose, rest, tamp, lock in, with no going back. It sounds like fussiness and it is two seconds a coffee: over two hundred coffees in a morning it is more than ten minutes, that is the queue clearing instead of growing.
A piece meant to be replaced
It is made to take knocks on behalf of something else, so sooner or later it marks, and that is as it should be: it costs a fraction of a portafilter and far less than a resurfaced worktop. The moment to change it is when the recess has widened to the point where the spouts touch the bottom, because from then on it stops protecting the thing it was bought for.
FAQ
Does the tamping station suit every portafilter? It is a rest, not a fitting: it takes the portafilter with the recess for the spouts and has no locking constraints.
Why not tamp straight onto the bar top? Because the force ends up on the spouts, the thinnest part of the portafilter, and because the surface marks.
What is it made from? Stainless steel, which cleans with one wipe and does not hold coffee oils.
How much does it weigh? 0.4kg: it stays where you put it without needing fixing down.
Is it worth it at home? If you have a machine with a portafilter, yes, and the same argument applies to the kitchen worktop.
The more you buy, the less you pay: 4 pieces -5%, 6 -7%, 8 -10%, on the same item.
Dispatched from Rome, Italy. 15-day returns, free of charge. Questions before you order? Message us on WhatsApp on +39 351 929 6937.
The other pieces of the coffee station are in the coffee accessories guide.
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