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- If you love to make espresso at home, you need a high-quality tamper to ensure that your grounds are ready to make the best shot of espresso possible.
- Our top pick is the Decent Espresso Tamper because its calibrated pressure settings and precise design make it the best espresso tamper you can buy.
Making espresso is all about precision. Tiny changes in temperature, pressure, dose, and yield can turn a delicious shot into something so bitter it's undrinkable. Tamping the grounds is a key part of the espresso process and that's why we think the Decent Espresso Tamp, with its calibrated pressure settings and precise manufacturing, is the best pick for most home baristas.
Every barista has their preferred tamper, and many professionals even bring their own to work. Once you find your favorite tamp, it should feel familiar in your hand and allow you to apply even pressure to your portafilter without much thought. That's particularly important when you're in a pre-coffee morning haze.
When selecting the best tampers for our guide, we looked for a few key attributes. The first is precision. If a tamper isn't the same size as your portafilter, some of the coffee will go uncompressed, and this will result in an uneven extraction as the water from your espresso machine will follow the path of least resistance through the untamped grounds, and you won't get the delicious drink you're looking for.
We also looked for tamps that felt good in the hand, both in terms of size and weight. Finally, we assessed durability and aesthetics because when something lives on your kitchen counter, you want it to look good and stay looking good.
Here are the best espresso tampers you can buy:
- Best espresso tamper overall: Decent Espresso Tamper
- Best espresso tamper for enthusiasts: Push Press
- Best espresso tamper for people with small hands: Rattleware Round Handle
- Best espresso tamper for small portafilters: Apexstone Tamper
- Best espresso tamper with a classic design: Reg Barber Tamper
Read on in the slides below to check out our top picks.
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