Coffee tampers for tamping coffee beans go tamper 57mm 58mm.

The Coffee Tamper is one of the most important tools to have for making coffee when using ground coffee beans.

For most machines the best tamper to have is one, which has a 57mm diameter.

There is a tendency for people to want a 58mm diameter tamper, as they believe that the base should occupy all the space at the top of the basket. We disagree with this decision.

If you look at the side of your filter basket, in most cases, the sides slope in somewhat.

So if you have a tamper with a 58mm base you compressing the outside of the baskets contents, more so than you are the innards, as there is more back pressure from the sides than anywhere else.

Bearing in mind the whole point of tamping is to evenly compress the coffee grinds throughout the basket in order to obtain an even extraction, with the water passing through ALL of the coffee at the same rate of speed, it is easy to see that a 58mm tamper will not help you achieve that.

The best thing to do is use a 57mm tamper, then tap the side of the portafilter so that any loose grinds on the outside are push inwards, then lay the tamper on top of those and rotate or spin the tamper so that you now have a flat surface for the coffee to pass through.

If you are using the traditional dosing methods of 7 grams for a single and 14 grams for a double, if you have a 58mm tamper, it may not go far enough down the basket to tamp at all!

Remember if you have a Spaziale, a San Marco, a domestic Pavoni or an early Iberital expression, you will have to buy a 53mm tamper as any bigger based ones will not fit.

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