There are periods of time when perusing the many coffee forums we experience a doldrum. A dull, boring lull when it just seems that there is nothing new to see, or read, or buy that catches neither the attention nor the imagination. Then the sun breaks through, the trade winds pick up, whitecaps appear and we are sailing again. Sometimes the waters are clear as glass, and at others it seems that you can't see the bottom at all.
      Those periods just seem to wash away the motivation, but in March of 2016 there were a number of threads concerning tamping. That in itself is not at all new, nor stimulating. It just takes one post from a new home barista asking whether we think they are tamping too hard or too soft because the flow is too slow or too fast. The replies in those threads usually follow a pattern that is, if nothing else, quite predictable, and normally they are just that and nothing more.
      But one thread centered around a tamper design that bewildered me. It allowed the user to adjust the base so that it would protrude to a fixed distance into the filter basket. Basically, like this:

      When used as designed it would always tamp to a user selected depth. Once the larger circumference of the "handle" hit the top edge of the basket, the piston portion was at a predetermined depth. An excerpt of my comments in the thread follow:

      While there is a minimum head-space required on some machines, never have I heard anyone say, "Tamp four point five millimeters," or anything similar. Tamping to a set depth? How do you know that the entire bed of coffee is compressed equally? With fingers around the base of a standard tamper you can feel if the coffee is generally of equal depth across its surface, but not very well with this tamper because it stops at its own bottom, not the "bottom" of compression.
      I have never used a tamper of this type, but then again I have never used a ruler to see how much I weigh. And while it may be an effective tool in some specific situations, for most users, "depth tamping" is just adding another possible variable when consistency in making espresso is already sufficiently challenging.

      At the time is seemed to me to be a solution, without a problem, which causes another problem, and my opinion remains unchanged. Beyond that, in commercial use it could possibly contribute to carpal tunnel because of the wrist's extreme angle when using the device. But in and amongst the iron pyrite which those threads contained I did pan out some nuggets of possible value.

TAMPING
      I have to assume that you all know what tamping is so I will not insult you with the elementary basics of the process. But I do want to take a few sentences to talk about the variables involved in tamping. Namely they are:
1 - The amount of compression the coffee experiences
2 - The importance of a level bed of coffee before extraction begins.
      For many years my attitude has been that if you find that you have to tamp to a specific amount of force, particularly if value is quite low or quite high, you are likely compensating for other problems. In my EASY GUIDE TO BETTER ESPRESSO AT HOME I covered those in detail here.
      For most of us, anything over about 20 pounds of downward force all the way up to 60 pounds is going to work fine.
      It is more important that the after tamping the coffee is roughly parallel to the basket's floor. In other words, level. That assures that the entire compressed mass of coffee will equally resist the flow of water during the brew cycle, and hopefully, extracts evenly throughout.

ADDRESSING THOSE TWO FACTORS WITH ONE TOOL
      We have seen a number of tampers which address tamping force, and I have previously reviewed two of them here on "Espresso! My Espresso!" Those are the Espro Calibrated Tamper, and the M-G Coffee Tools Smart-Tamp (links to my reviews).
      I mentioned earlier the "nuggets" of value I found. These were tools that supplied a solution to assure that the user created a bed of coffee that was level after tamping. Of the two tampers found which addressed that need, only one addressed both factors- level tamping and force-controlled tamping. That was the Eazy Tamp 5 Star Pro, made in Australia. NOTE - I did contact the manufacturers of the other tamper but never received a response.
      Eazy Tamp was created by Mr. Elie Nootenboom over a ten-year period. He's an engineer, builder and coffee addict, and it sounds like he would fit in around here just fine. The company is a family owned business based in Melbourne. The Eazy Tamp comes with a one-year guarantee on all internal parts (excluding timber and painted handles). It is 100% Australian made using only high grade stainless steel, industrial grade acetal plastic, and it is also available with the best quality natural Tasmanian Timbers (for their wood handle model).

LET'S TAKE A LOOK

      Here is the Eazy Tamp 5 Star Pro disassembled, laid out in assembly order:

IN USE
      The Eazy Tamp does exactly what it says it is designed to do. It holds the tamper level and in operation it is so stable I think that it would be nearly impossible to preform a tamp that was not level. Once in place on the portafilter you can tamp with your eyes closed, literally, and still get a level tamp. You can hold the acetal handle any way you like and not worry about achieving a level tamp so long as the "5-Star" leveling flange is on the basket. And even that is fairly well taken care of by the levelling plate spring which is designed to do just that.

      To some, buying a tamper online is sort of like mail order underwear. The big question is, "How will it feel and how will it fit?" To give you an idea, above are (left to right), the M-G Tools Smart Tamp, the Espro Calibrated Tamp, and the Eazy Tamp 5 Star Pro.

CONCLUSION
      I had been using the Eazy Tamp 5 Star Pro for a few days before I headed off the Atlanta for the 2016 SCAA Exhibition. The day I returned home, by the time my weary head and aching feet hit the pillow and sheets (in that order) I had been awake for just over 20 hours. Yes, that is a long day. It is almost an entire day. The next morning I was (politely) ordered to make our morning coffee, and I was very glad to have the Eazy Tamp 5 Star Pro in hand. Bleary eyed, thought processes fogged, and less than steady-handed, level tamps were easily achieved. I do believe that you could hand the tamper to someone who has never made a single espresso and they could achieve a level tamp simply by handing them a dosed portafilter and the tamper, and with no more instruction than, "Put it in there [you point to basket] and press down hard on that handle [you point to tamper handle]."
      Well made, quality materials, and it does exactly what it says. If only marriage was that easy {insert rim shot}. It sells directly from the manufacturer for $148 plus shipping (free shipping in Australia). Kit #2 includes the The Eazy Tamp Cup (regularly $38 alone) for a total of $168. The accessory page has the Star Infusion base as well as a 12mm spanner available if you need that.
      You might ask, "Which one should I get? Which one is best?" Next you'll be asking me what underwear you should buy. I can't answer any of those questions for you. These tampers all have their place. Putting all three together would make quite a nice tool. And sure, I would like to have the performance of a Ferrari with the safety of my Volvo 245 and the cost of a new 1969 VW bug... as it was in 1969. It's just not going to happen. What I can say is that I liked the Eazy Tamp 5 Star Pro right from the start.
      I think the leveling aspect of this tamper makes handle fit less important. The handle of a non-leveling tamper must fit the hand well in order to give control over that aspect. In use, the leveling function of this tamper works perfectly, and with quality distribution of the grounds before tamping, you would have to work hard to foul up your tamping.
     Check out the Eazy Tamp 5 Star Pro. It just might be what you are looking for to improve your espresso. And who knows? If nothing else, you just may have a few of those "morning-after-a-long-day"s in your future where a level tamp, easily accomplished, will be just what the doctor (or the barista) ordered..