# MG Coffee Smart-Tamp



## Xpenno (Nov 12, 2012)

Saw this in a video the other night and thought it looked interesting. If not used day-to-day, then it I think it could be useful as a training tool to build up muscle memory. I would certainly like a better feel for what I am actually tamping. It comes in various colours, 53, 58 and 58.4 versions as well as pound or kg versions.

What do you think?

http://www.mgcoffeetools.com/smart_tamp.php


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## frasermade (Feb 26, 2014)

I like that. Shame it's so expensive


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

I'm going to be brutal and say waste of money....


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## Xpenno (Nov 12, 2012)

Mrboots2u said:


> I'm going to be brutal and say waste of money....


You, Boots the moderator, brutal...


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## Xpenno (Nov 12, 2012)

But it does come with both a flat and convex base


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## Xpenno (Nov 12, 2012)

frasermade said:


> I like that. Shame it's so expensive


Agreed, I reckon I'd have a go for £50-60.


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## drude (Apr 22, 2013)

It's only brutal if you say it to someone who just bought one. Does seem a bit gimmicky, but might help someone be consistent which is the most important thing with tamping. A much cheaper way to be consistent is to do what I do, which is to put no pressure at all down beyond the weight of the tamper itself.


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## Charliej (Feb 25, 2012)

Yeah but given the fact the the base itself is more or less hollow to accommodate the built in scales and batteries etc it's going to be very lightweight, and going from that to , say, a brass Goldfinger would really mess up your muscle memory for a bit.


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Xpenno said:


> Agreed, I reckon I'd have a go for £50-60.


You could get a nice shiny bling bling tamp for that and just guess how hard you press .

Plus as previously discussed elsewhere tamp pressure is the least important variable in extraction.

Im off to find that HB link where they guy tamps 100 pound with practical no difference to extractions time. Will save you some money ..


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Just for debate sakes read this thread ...and mr Schulman post half way down .

http://www.home-barista.com/tips/espresso-how-to-find-your-grind-vs-how-strong-you-tamp-t27966.html


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Xpenno said:


> You, Boots the moderator, brutal...


To be fair it's no more of a waste of money than a goldfinger coz it looks nice ..


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## Dylan (Dec 5, 2011)

I think spending so much on getting your pressure right when its not a huge contributing factor to the cup is madness.


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## garydyke1 (Mar 9, 2011)

I looked at her hand , not the tamper. hmmm


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## Xpenno (Nov 12, 2012)

garydyke1 said:


> I looked at her hand , not the tamper. hmmm


Let's hope she doesn't tamp at 100lbs!


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## Xpenno (Nov 12, 2012)

Mrboots2u said:


> Just for debate sakes read this thread ...and mr Schulman post half way down .
> 
> http://www.home-barista.com/tips/espresso-how-to-find-your-grind-vs-how-strong-you-tamp-t27966.html


That'll give me something to do tomorrow then! Not sure that I'll go as far as stepping on my torr though.

I'm not sure I like the "science" he is using to describe why it doesn't make a difference, but if the experiment proves it then who am I to argue. Thanks for the link.

Spence


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## Dylan (Dec 5, 2011)

I think the basic argument makes sense, once the basket is at pressure and has water infused throughout the grounds, why would how hard it was initially tamped make a difference?


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## Xpenno (Nov 12, 2012)

D_Evans said:


> I think the basic argument makes sense, once the basket is at pressure and has water infused throughout the grounds, why would how hard it was initially tamped make a difference?


So taking two identically dosed baskets and presuming fines are evenly distributed throughout the dose. If I apply no force to basket 1 and 100lbs to basket 2 then when the water starts flowing and the pressure builds up the I would expect the following.

Basket 1. The finds are not as tightly packed together and you would see more fines migration and potentially a slower flow of water because of this.

Basket 2. The puck is more tightly packed and therefore as pressure ramps up the fines can't move as freely causing the water pass more freely.

I don't really have much of an idea what happens in the basket tbh. Could be that when the water hits the puck expands and it doesn't make any difference how it was originally packed as everything is now free to move.

I like science and I like experiments, playtime tomorrow! Oh yeah, I know the fun, too much fun!


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Xpenno said:


> That'll give me something to do tomorrow then! Not sure that I'll go as far as stepping on my torr though.
> 
> I'm not sure I like the "science" he is using to describe why it doesn't make a difference, but if the experiment proves it then who am I to argue. Thanks for the link.
> 
> Spence










might save you £60 too.....


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## Xpenno (Nov 12, 2012)

Mrboots2u said:


> might save you £60 too.....


I'll be able to buy one with the interest I'll have earned on the cash sat in the bank waiting to buy an EK43


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## Dylan (Dec 5, 2011)

Xpenno said:


> So taking two identically dosed baskets and presuming fines are evenly distributed throughout the dose. If I apply no force to basket 1 and 100lbs to basket 2 then when the water starts flowing and the pressure builds up the I would expect the following.
> 
> Basket 1. The finds are not as tightly packed together and you would see more fines migration and potentially a slower flow of water because of this.
> 
> ...


I was thinking more along the lines of the difference between a 10lb tamp and a 30/40/50lb tamp. I certainly wouldn't want to leave the coffee untamped as it would make the shower screen filthy!

But do let us know how it goes, as a practical experiment is always better than the imaginings in my head


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## drude (Apr 22, 2013)

To quote Scott Rao, the point of tamping is to create a surface that provides uniform resistance to the water. It needs to be smooth and sealed but need not be produced at any particular pressure.


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## Xpenno (Nov 12, 2012)

D_Evans said:


> I was thinking more along the lines of the difference between a 10lb tamp and a 30/40/50lb tamp. I certainly wouldn't want to leave the coffee untamped as it would make the shower screen filthy!
> 
> But do let us know how it goes, as a practical experiment is always better than the imaginings in my head


So I just ran two shots, both were prepared the same (or as close as can be when I'm involved). Shot 1 was tamped lightly, surface was smoothed and took about 1-2mm off the height of the unprepared coffee. Shot 2 was tamped to my usual weight which is a fair bit harder, I didn't go all out and stand on it.

Shot 1 had some pretty bad channelling and was obviously not happy, it ended up producing 28g in 24 seconds, shot 2 looked much better (and tasted much better), it wasn't perfect but it ran pretty smoothly with no channelling and produced 29g in 29 seconds.

So this was my first test, I'll probably run one with a medium tamp and vhard to see if there is a difference there (I'm guessing based on posts here that there will be much less difference between these two. It's not very scientific as I don't really know what sort of pressure I'm actually tamping at, but it keeps me out of trouble.


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## Xpenno (Nov 12, 2012)

drude said:


> To quote Scott Rao, the point of tamping is to create a surface that provides uniform resistance to the water. It needs to be smooth and sealed but need not be produced at any particular pressure.


Interesting info, thanks for sharing. I guess Scott should know, I imagine that he has spent much more time researching this than me









Cheers

Spence


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

Pish....I invented the Digitamp over 7 years ago....been there, done that got the tea shirt


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## Xpenno (Nov 12, 2012)

DavecUK said:


> Pish....I invented the Digitamp over 7 years ago....been there, done that got the tea shirt


I'd be interested to know your thoughts on tamp pressure on the extraction. If you developed something similar I guess you believed that it mattered at the time.


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

Xpenno said:


> I'd be interested to know your thoughts on tamp pressure on the extraction. If you developed something similar I guess you believed that it mattered at the time.


if you see my post in the lounge, you will understand.

As for tamping, dunno pretty neutral about it. Not sure how hard is right. The only observation is that it depends a little on the coffee and the grinder....but a lot of people tamp very very hard, harder than they realise. I think really hard is perhaps not good, but that's about it? As for shape, flat, US curve, again dunno...I've got a RB US curve, but it was given to me, so I've always used it....seems to work OK.


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## glevum (Apr 4, 2013)

like an Espro you realise after a couple of days you don't need this. Makes a good paperweight thou'!


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## garydyke1 (Mar 9, 2011)

It should beep when its spirit-level


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