The Bezzera Strega Thread - The Witch!

Moon

Deals done - The Witch is landing in Werribee after all.  :thumb:

KK - I read that you use a convex tamper .. I've always liked the idea of a convex tamp .. the thinking being (rightfully or wrongly) that having a rise of grinds around the outside wall of grinds in the basket would offset the tendency for the water to hit the wall and favour the the weakest resistance .. which would be the gap between the grinds and the wall.

Which tamper is it, where did you get it, and how much did it cost? They appear to be fairly scarce, and one was around $120. Of course, the flat ones would be easier and therefore cheaper to turn in a lathe... although you'd think it would only take a slight 15 second adjustment.

What basket do you use .. and what size is it? I have a 58mm from a previous machine that I will use initially .. which will be a huge improvement on the plastic one I was using that came with the PV Lusso.

Nothing urgent ... just curious.

LeroyC

on 1477281745:

Deals done - The Witch is landing in Werribee after all.  :thumb: KK - I read that you use a convex tamper .. I've always liked the idea of a convex tamp .. the thinking being (rightfully or wrongly) that having a rise of grinds around the outside wall of grinds in the basket would offset the tendency for the water to hit the wall and favour the the weakest resistance .. which would be the gap between the grinds and the wall. Which tamper is it, where did you get it, and how much did it cost? They appear to be fairly scarce, and one was around $120. Of course, the flat ones would be easier and therefore cheaper to turn in a lathe... although you'd think it would only take a slight 15 second adjustment. What basket do you use .. and what size is it? I have a 58mm from a previous machine that I will use initially .. which will be a huge improvement on the plastic one I was using that came with the PV Lusso. Nothing urgent ... just curious.

Strega! Niiiiiiice. Such an awesome looking machine that's good out of the box but can also be modded. I'd love to get my hands on one. Regarding flat v. convex tampers I would recommend a flat based one. I've used both and always got better results with the flat tamper. Your theory is interesting and isn't unreasonable. I actually read an article about this very topic recently by Matt Perger. Being the uber coffee geek he is he did some fairly extensive testing of various tamper shapes and designs and found that the convex ones always led to inferior results when used with high quality espresso equipment. He concluded that it was related to the distribution of water from the shower screen. If your shower screen is flat (which most are) and good enough quality to distribute water evenly across the puck then you don't want a puck that isn't flat as well as it will work against this action. In the end he designed a tamper with Pullman that has a flat base, is 58.3mm to completely cover most filter baskets, doesn't have bevelled edges meaning it's edges are almost knife sharp, and has tapered sides so that it can't get stuck in the PF. To be really sure I'd suggest you get one of each to try. At least then you know what suits your set best. I'd recommend Cafelat for good quality convex tampers. They also do flat base tampers as well obviously and the prices for their entry level models are very reasonable.

Koffee_Kosmo

My tamper is a Pulman Barista with matching PF basket & from memory it was an LM basket The tamper base is a convex but it is a tiny convex I recommend that you use a tamper base profile you are comfortable with The dispersion screen I use is the IMS unit You will notice that the Strega's Portafilter's are slightly deeper so you need to do a trial & error for correct tamp depth That depth is just touching or a hairs thickness off the dispersion screen when locked in KK

bcspark

The Witch cast its spell over me quite some years ago and i have been bewitched ever since .I operate with a IMS dispersion screen ,VST baskets and a Pullman Barista flat tamper made to fit the VST baskets.