Tamper BigStep | Pink

The most important parameters of correct tamping are horizontal accuracy and consistency, or to put it another way: the tamping must be straight and even. There are recommendations circulating in various publications that you should tampe with 12kg (or more or less) contact pressure. Such a value is wrong - or at least misleading: it is much more important than maintaining a certain absolute pressure that you tamp consistently, i.e. always the same way. Whether that happens at 4, 6 or 8 kg is irrelevant. The tamping should only remove the air pockets that are still present after the distribution (chiselling). Incidentally, coffee cannot be compressed infinitely anyway. When the air pockets (air pockets) are gone, the coffee no longer condenses, even with the maximum contact pressure. There is also a nice video by Adam about this. The horizontal accuracy is already 'preset' by the previous chiselling, so to speak, and the BigStep's accuracy of fit largely prevents you from tamping crookedly. However, it is helpful to hold the tamper in such a way that you touch the upper edge of the portafilter with your thumb and forefinger as a reference point when tamping. Then you can basically no longer tamping wrong.

A clear 'YES' with two small caveats:

the Colours, which we use for tampers, chisels, portafilters, spacers etc. are identical.

However, they work anodized Chisel looks a little different than the anodized tampers and portafilters. This is because we hand blast the surface of the chisel for a better feel - therefore the refraction of light is slightly different and anodized chisels appear slightly different than anodized tampers of the same colour.

This effect occurs powder coated Products not on, here the colors are identical.

Both Wooden Basically, the same wood is used, but it should be remembered that wood is a natural product and different batches of the same wood are always slightly different in terms of grain, color intensity, structure, etc. If you order a set (e.g. tamper and chisel) from us, we always make sure that the blades match each other or come from the same batch. Of course, if you buy a chisel or a portafilter after your tamper or vice versa, we cannot guarantee that. However, it has turned out that the differences are marginal and almost never bothersome, especially since woods tend to adjust in terms of color over time anyway.

Of the BigStep LITTLE is a further development of the BigStep; and in two ways:

1: the A little is significantly easier. Contrary to the widespread opinion that a high-quality tamper should have a certain weight, a low weight is always an advantage. You simply have more control when tamping. This is particularly interesting for those who tampe many hundreds to thousands of shots a day, as the lower weight causes less fatigue. But it's also definitely a plus for private users or 'normal' baristas with a few dozen shots a day.

2: the second advantage is the narrower sidewall. This is particularly relevant if you like to fill your sieve very full - then you have more control when tamping with the narrower sidewall because the tamper edge does not protrude so far over the edge of the sieve.

In terms of further functionality, both are exactly the same. The main feature of the BigStep, the maximum coverage of the screen cross-section, is identical for both.

Of the BigStep MK III offers the same dimensions as the normal BigStep, but comes with a gold Titanium Nitride coating. Surface finishing with TitanNitrid is common in areas where the highest level of precision and robustness is required, e.g. in medical technology. This makes the tamper even more resistant - and it also looks good.

The BigStep is actually a small revolution - it's not the only one for nothing patented Tampers on the market. The step achieves an unprecedented increase in surface area without the formation of a vacuum. This reduces the channeling significantly. For physical reasons, no other tamper on the market can achieve this level of accuracy. Nicely explained here: