Ahh the Tamper!

I am not totally sure on the merits of the tamper outside of doing the basics, compacting the coffee evenly and reasonably fitting inside of your basket. After it does that not sure if anything more than that especially in the home setting where egronomics are not going to be that important, it seems like it's just all eye candy.

Now eye candy is important you want something that you can leave out on the counter and not totally be ashamed of. Now I got a new tamper over Christmas, the Luce Tamper by Espresso Gear. It's a pretty tamper with a slightly convex base. Now I have never read anything really about the merits, but I know there are discussions on the merits of tampers and which ones should be used.

In my case I wanted this mainly for a combination of the looks and my other tamper from Rattleware is about the most basic one you can get, and also about the cheapest one. The problem I found with that one is it's a little large to get a decent grip and allow me to tamp evenly, especially at first. I think I have grown use to it, but just wanted something a little prettier.

Honestly, a large reason was looks that I wanted a different tamper. The shape of the handle of tamper does allow for an better grip when tamping and does make the process more enjoyable in my opinion. Another aspect that I was not expecting was that this tamper fits the baskets a little better, leaving less coffee around the edges of the baskets. For better or worse since I have gotten new baskets and different coffee I have not been able to notice any changes in my coffee and I largely think there probably should not be.

On a different note, a nice part to these tampers is they come apart and you buy the base and handle seperately. So this is nice if I ever decide I want a pink handle or change my machines out and it has a different basket size I will not have to buy a completely new tamper.

Overall I really like this tamper and am glad to put it one display and at being under thirty dollars provides a reasonable in my mind upgrade over my previous tamper without being excessive.