Espresso Packing Techniques
Update 2004
Story and Photos by David Schomer

		1) Traditional Italian packing tool combines comfort and quality.
		2) Width measured at top of packed coffee determines packing piston size.
		3) A little pile of fresh ground coffee in the basket.
		4) After filling in any low spots, compress the coffee towards the 12 o'clock position.
		5) Now, from the top, compress the coffee drawing your finger to the 6 o'clock position
		6) Bring the excess coffee to the middle of the basket & repeat compression strokes.
		7) Pack straight down with 40 lbs. of force. twist as you list packer off the coffee.
		8) Tap lightly, note the portafilter has been lifted off the countertop.
		9) Train staff to pack with 40 lbs. using a bathroom scale.
		10) Finish with polishing the coffee by turning the packer clockwise with 20 lbs. of force.

I took my first packing lesson in 1987 from one of the true founders of espresso in the states, and a seriously nice fellow, Kent Bakke. Besides being a great guy, Kent was an intense sort of packer. He applied such force to his wobbly portafilter that students instinctively backed up a step, fearing an explosion if he should accidentally slip.
   “You must . . . pack with as much . . . force as you can . . . muster,” he grunted and huffed, red-faced. “It is the true . . . Italian way!”
   And that’s the way you wanted it. In the last century, the French and Italians had arrived at the conclusion that pressurized brewing water might help extract and preserve the most coffee aromas and flavors throughout the brewing process. This revolution capped five centuries of wild invention among artisans and layabouts with the time and the money to pursue the aromatic siren of the roasted bean.
   To create modern caffè espresso, the machines push hot water, with 125 pounds of force behind it, through a little stainless steel basket containing ground coffee. Precise, careful hard packing of the ground coffee has been shown to be the best way to control this water flow and ensure even saturation of all coffee particles. It is the even saturation that gives you the most flavor.
   So we all hard pack the espresso. There is of course a whole body of technique, tools and theory that maximizes your, and your staff’s, ability to do this.

The Packer
The two considerations in selecting a packing tool are coffee quality and staff comfort, the emerging science of ergonomics.

Photo 1

   Pictured here (Photo #1) is our “ergo-packer,” a design directly derived from a traditional Italian flat-packer that I found in Northern Italy in 1988. As the bottom of the coffee basket is also flat, this packer provides a packed cake of coffee that is an even thickness.
   There is another school of thought. Many Italian packers have been made with a rounded bottom. I believe this design was produced to push the ground coffee towards the sides of the coffee basket to facilitate a good seal between the basket walls and the packed coffee. But this design produces a packed cake of coffee that is thinner in the middle. More pressurized water flows through the center of the cake in this design, causing over-saturation, while the edges do not receive enough saturation. You end up with less crema in the cup.
   The perfect surface for the bottom of the packing piston is a slight dome. The curve is not enough to create a signifigant thin spot, but it is enough to aid in distribution and creates a seal with the sides of the coffee basket.
   For comfort this packer cannot be beat. The beveled top of the tamping head, and the handle’s length and shape, combine to distribute the packing force throughout the human hand when gripped correctly. The forearm should be vertical and the wrist as straight as possible.
   For long-term comfort preparing espresso every day, it is good to have the counter-top at about belt level on the barista. Obviously, people come in different sizes, so at Vivace we have settled on 34” as a good height for our back-bar countertop. I estimate that my staff and I have prepared well over three million double shots with such a design with no significant hand or wrist problems. Master barista Amy Vanderbeck has made over a million double shots in her 18 years on the Seattle scene. She likes the packer and the grip.

Sizing
The packing head should be within one millimeter of the diameter of the coffee basket at the dosing level.

Figure 2

   Some baskets taper in and some feature a distinct vertical chamber. Remember, to establish your ideal dosage, the top of the packed coffee must be about 5 millimeters from the bottom of the dispersion screen with the porta-filter locked into the group head. This allows room for expansion during brewing and assures even saturation during the pre-infusion stage of the brewing cycle. (Figure #2)

Drying the Basket
Remove the porta-filter from the group head and bang out the old puck. Quickly dry the inner walls of the coffee basket with a cotton bar towel. I dry the inner walls of the coffee basket to help the coffee form a waterproof seal with the walls of the basket. Water likes to go where water is. It is basic physics, so dry the basket walls quickly and thoroughly, it really works.

Distribution
While you dry the coffee basket you should be grinding the coffee for your shot of espresso. The foundation of Vivace espresso technique is that we grind by the cup. This assures that ground coffee will not oxidize, creating a metallic flavor and less crema in the cup. But there is also a greater degree of control over the flow rate of the espresso as it oozes out of the machine. As humidity changes, the baristi make small changes in the grind, keeping the critical flow-rate on target. Grinding by the cup has been largely adopted the world over as the gospel in expert espresso preparation.
   However, it adds a problem of its own: how to precisely measure the amount of ground coffee used in the shot. Grinding a hopper-full assures that the dosing chamber built into the grinder will deliver a reasonably accurate double shot with two pulls on the handle. Grinding by the cup, on the other hand, means that you must rely on your distribution technique to measure the amount of coffee used, and keep it very consistent as you prepare shots of espresso on your bar. Northern Italian roasts such as mine are also very sticky upon grinding. Ground coffee will form lumps and channels as it tumbles into the porta-filter basket. The following distribution technique assures that these lumps and channels are eliminated, creating an even particle density in the basket, before packing occurs. (Photos #3–8).

		3) A little pile of fresh ground coffee in the basket.
		4) After filling in any low spots, compress the coffee towards the 12 o'clock position.
		5) Now, from the top, compress the coffee drawing your finger to the 6 o'clock position
		6) Bring the excess coffee to the middle of the basket & repeat compression strokes.
		7) Pack straight down with 40 lbs. of force. twist as you list packer off the coffee.
		8) Tap lightly, note the portafilter has been lifted off the countertop.

   An added benefit we have discovered at Vivace over the years is that our careful attention to distribution technique means that staff do not have to pack as hard to get a perfect, full-flavor extraction. Our packing force is 40 pounds, but smaller staff may pack with 30 pounds of force.
   After dosing, you now have a little pile of coffee in the basket. I teach my staff to look for any distinctly low spots in the coffee and quickly fill them in before distribution begins. Now distribute it by compressing it gently in a back and forth motion with your finger.
   Go back and forth twice from 6 o’clock to 12 o’clock and again from 9 o’clock to 3 o’clock. Distribution of ground coffee is subtle, because you are trying to arrange a sticky “powder” in a perfectly even matrix of grains before packing. The key is a consistent “X” pattern: The strokes are perpendicular to one another. Each stroke goes nearly to the edge without pushing the berm of ground coffee created by your finger over the rim of the basket. The action has a dual purpose: it squishes out the lumps and channels for even saturation and provides an exactly repeatable volume of coffee for precise control over the flow rate of the espresso shot.

Packing Technique
   Place the porta-filter on a hard surface, holding it as level as you can. After distribution you may settle the coffee further by thumping the porta-filter straight down on the counter a couple of times.
   Gently place the packing head against the surface of the coffee and push straight down, paying particular attention that you hold the packer straight, ensuring a level pack. On this first pass it is not essential to pack down with the full weight, it is more important to be perfectly level.
   How hard should you pack down? This subject straddles the world of ergonomics and coffee quality. For the espresso packing down with 50 to 60 pounds of force will maximize your goal of even saturation but in my first year I learned directly it is not sustainable for the light of bone and tendon, such as myself. And, as I have mentioned, precise distribution will allow for lighter packing weight without compromising coffee quality.

   Using a bathroom scale to train employees (Photos #9, 10), I have settled on 40 pounds maximum pressure to make supreme espresso and not strain any ligaments or cause backaches.

		9) Train staff to pack with 40 lbs. using a bathroom scale.
		10) Finish with polishing the coffee by turning the packer clockwise with 20 lbs. of force.

   After the first pack twist the packer as you let up on the pressure. The twisting motion assures that the packer does not pull coffee off the surface of the partially packed cake. Raise the packer, flip it around smoothly, and using the small end tap the side of the porta-filter to dislodge ground coffee that has crept up the side of the basket. It is essential you do not hit it very hard. Use only the minimum force to get coffee off the side walls or you can break the seal between the coffee basket and the packed coffee. By drying the basket you need barely touch the porta-filter to dislodge this ground coffee.
   Then place the porta-filter back on the counter and apply the packer again, straight down. Bear down with 40 pounds of force, and as you release the pressure, polish the surface of the packed coffee with a twist of the packer. If you pack right-handed you should twist clockwise a full 360 degrees around with no more than twenty pounds of weight on the packer. Do not “scrub” the surface of the coffee with the packer, twisting back and forth. Instead twist one direction as far as your wrist allows, then reset your grip and twist the same direction again without lifting the packer. A fluid smoothness is important. The polish stroke is intended to help seal the surface against the rush of hot water under pressure. Water at 125 pounds of force can easily break apart the surface of the packed coffee creating a pit. Your coffee goes “down the pit.”
   When you reset your grip, essentially letting go of the packer and turning your wrist back for another twist, it is a great opportunity to use an alternative grip to refresh your hand, because you are not applying the full force during polishing. I personally put the heel of my hand on the handle, curling the fingers under the small lip the handle forms, for the twisting stroke.
   A master barista doing the dance of espresso preparation is beautiful to watch. A fluid packing technique is the heart of the whole thing and adds to the romance of this little cup of thick, sweet coffee prepared especially for you.

David Schomer is the owner of Seattle’s Espresso Vivace, espresso roasting and preparation specialists and the author of the classic, Espresso Techniques. He can be reached through his Web site www.espressovivace.com.