How do you tamp coffee?

QUESTION:

How many times should you tamp down the coffee?

ANSWER:

When you are preparing an espresso with a manual espresso machine, you have to tamp the coffee grounds by hand.

One of the differences between regular coffee and espresso is that with espresso-making the coffee grinds are not loose, as you would have them with a drip brewer. To make a good espresso, the coffee must be pressed down, or tamped, to create a solid pellet of coffee for the hot water to pass through.

How many times should you tamp the coffee grinds? In a way, that's the wrong question. It's not a matter of the number of times you press down with the tamper. It's a matter of the pressure applied.

Ideally, you should push down with the tamper just once, with a pressure of about 5 pounds.

How can you tell what five pounds of pressure feels like? Practice by holding the tamper and pressing down on your kitchen scales. Do that enough times and you'll get a feel for what five pounds of pressure feels like.

I hope this helps.