Part of the joy of making espresso is the interaction between the barista and the bean. Tamping by hand is one such way a barista can ‘stamp their authority’ on their coffee so to speak. At Bang, we use a specially designed coffee tamper to exert around 10 kilograms of perfectly straight downward pressure onto the ground coffee. This process compacts the ground coffee evenly ensuring that there is no ‘path of least resistance’ for the brewing water to pass through ensuring an even and full-flavoured espresso extraction. Given that a barista at a good cafe will potentially make hundreds of coffees a day, tamping becomes a consistent and almost mechanical action. There are many variables in any given day that will require some action be taken by the barista to ensure the quality of each espresso extraction. A consistent tamp enables the barista to concentrate on grinder adjustment to address these variables, confident in the knowledge that his or her tamping pressure is always spot on.

One of the great things about our job is that we never tire of watching the perfect espresso extraction – rich and caramel brown, flowing like warm honey and finishing in the cup with a thick crema that is slow to dissipate. There are a number of equally important elements that go into perfecting that extraction, two of which are bean selection and the freshness of the roast.

A well constructed blend will manage to showcase the natural sweetness of the beans whilst delivering warm savoury overtones. It should have good body with a silky mouth-feel and a pleasant lingering aftertaste. As far as freshness goes, oxygen is arguably the biggest single factor in the degradation of a roasted bean. Whole roasted beans will start to go stale within 3 hours of exposure to oxygen while ground coffee will take as little as five minutes. At Bang we grind on demand for each and every individual coffee.