Tamping coffee is one of the key factors involved in pulling a perfect shot of espresso. The right amount of weight pressure can make a difference between under-extracted, over-extracted or a just right shot of espresso.
The one I use is the Normcore Spring Loaded V4 tamper. So far, it has been doing what’s expected of it. It makes the tamping process easy and routine. Before, I had all sorts of problems with the stock Profitec Go tamper. My espressos were not consistent. And this annoyed me, because I was wasting coffee beans and time as some of the shots pulled were undrinkable.
Well, I salvaged some of those horrible shots but turning them into cortados, americanos and cappuccinos. Hiding my numerous blunders with more water, milk and sugar. Ala my favorite cafes. But what I really wanted, and one of the main reasons why I became interested in this hobby was to pull ‘sweet espressos.’ Something that my local cafes deprived me of despite having top of the line espresso machines.
So, what makes the Normcore V4 Tamper effective? It is spring loaded and comes with three different metal springs. I use the 25lb spring but it also comes with a 15lb or 30lb spring. I found that the 15lb spring pulled my shots a little too quickly, and the 30lb pressure spring over-extracted my espresso.
Using the Niche Zero, 18 grams of high-altitude Ecuadorian coffee on grinder setting 18.5. The shots are pulled with an ECM bottomless portafilter at 2:1 ratio (36 grams total espresso) in 27 seconds. This is with the 25lb spring, but with the 30lb spring the same amount was extracted in 34 seconds and a little bit over-extracted.
The 25lb works for me, but some people prefer the 15lb and others the 30lb spring. It’ll depend on your preference and the type of coffee beans you are grinding. If for some reason, you need to alter between springs, changing them will only take a minute or two.
I like it, and if the tamping part of your workflow is annoying you like it did me then the Normcore or something similar will help. It’s well constructed and after a month of use, I’ve hadn’t any problems with it.