Barista course · Episode 5

The perfect puck — distribute and tamp

The full text of this episode — to read, look up and quote.

Cold open

Look at this stream. A single centred thread, even, honey-coloured. That is what it looks like when everything is right.

And whether it looks like that is decided in the thirty seconds before you press the button. While you prepare the coffee bed. Professionals call it the puck.

Today you learn to build it perfectly.

Where this sits in the five Ms

And that brings us to the fifth and biggest M, the human being. That is you. Bean, measure, grind, machine — all prepared.

But whether a great espresso comes out of it now depends on your hands. The good news is that there are only four movements. The even better news: if you do them the same way every time, your espresso becomes reliably good.

Chart: the four movements

Four steps. Always in this order. Step one.

Dosing. Your eighteen grams of ground coffee go into the basket. As evenly as possible, without one side spilling over.

Step two. WDT. That stands for a distribution technique with fine needles.

You run a small tool of thin needles through the grounds and break up every clump. It sounds like fussiness, but it is the most effective trick against uneven extraction. Step three.

Levelling. You spread the surface smooth and level, so the grounds lie flat and evenly high. Step four.

Tamping. You press the grounds down firmly with the tamper. And here only one thing counts.

Level. Not especially forceful, but absolutely horizontal. An even, firm pressure.

The tamper set down flat. And your puck is ready.

Teaching: why level is everything

Why does level matter so much? Do you remember the lazy water from the episode about the grind? It always looks for the easiest way.

If you press the tamper down crooked, one side of the puck is packed denser than the other. The water ignores the dense side and shoots through the loose one. And you have the same fault as with an uneven grind.

One part bitter, one part sour. Channelling. Straight through your beautiful puck.

So no acrobatics when tamping — calm, flat, level. Better slow and even than forceful and crooked.

Teaching: the bottomless portafilter as your teacher

And now let me tell you about the best learning tool there is. The bottomless portafilter. With a normal portafilter the espresso runs out below through a spout.

You cannot see a thing. With the bottomless one the base is open. You watch the coffee from underneath as it runs out.

And that shows you every mistake, mercilessly. Does the stream run nicely from the centre and join into one thread? Perfect.

Is it dripping on one side only? Your tamp was crooked. Is it spraying wildly in all directions?

You did not distribute properly. That is channelling. The bottomless portafilter is your most honest teacher.

If you buy one thing to practise with, buy this. It makes the invisible visible.

Hands-on

Now you. The whole sequence. Eighteen grams into the basket.

Break up the clumps. Distribute smooth. Tamp level.

Lock it in and pull. Ideally with the bottomless portafilter, so that you can see it. And then watch the stream.

Does it come from the centre? Is it even? Or does it tip to one side?

Do that three times in a row and see whether you can get the stream calmer and more centred. You do not have to get it perfect the first time. You are meant to learn how to read it.

Common mistakes

Three stumbling blocks. One. Tamping crooked.

The most common beginner's mistake, and the bottomless portafilter shows it to you at once. Two. Skipping the distribution and going straight to the tamp.

The clumps stay, and the water channels. Three. Believing it is about raw force.

It is not. It is about level and even. The same every time.

Recap and your task

Let us hold on to this. Four movements, always the same. Dose, break up the clumps, distribute smooth, tamp level.

Level beats forceful. And the bottomless portafilter is your most honest teacher. Your assignment.

Build three pucks. Pull them bottomless. And watch the stream.

Where does it run crooked? And why? In the next episode we bring it all together and dial the espresso in for good.

Dialling in. omaneo. And YOU can do espresso.