De'Longhi DLSC058 Coffee Tamper, Stainless Steel

Having just spent four precious hours of my life steeped in the sordid world of professional barista-level coffee tampers, researching and analysing all aspects thereof in tedious depth and detail, I am seriously beginning to regret the day I chanced upon Mr James Hoffman’s ruinously excellent channel on the Tube of You. Until recently, I have managed to live my life blissfully free of the need for a precision-machined stainless steel tamper with seasoned olive wood top. The simple though admittedly ugly plastic tamper supplied with my DeLonghi has been making a perfectly acceptable job of compressing ground coffee into a compact disk since 2009. But since making the dreadful mistake of watching one of Hoffman’s manipulative mind-game videos extolling the virtues of these devices, and the meaningless of life without one, I became a man obsessed. My every waking hour was consumed by covetous thoughts about them. Worse, I have been suffering nights more disturbed than usual, with what scant sleep I enjoy interrupted by vivid dreams in which Hoffman himself is chasing me through a coffee plantation in the small hours, his Espro Calibrated Convex Base tamper glinting in the moonlighty night, berating me for my tamperless life and threatening to haunt me for evermore, causing me to wake violently in a cold sweat. Obviously, this unhealthy state of affairs could not continue, so as I am sure you have guessed already, I have capitulated and one of these now reposes seductively next to my espresso machine as I type these very words. Apart from the bizarre blue colour other's have bemoaned, it is, I think, a most excellently made instrument, and since it arrived I have used every opportunity to caress the curves of its smooth wood handle and feel the heft of its precision engineered stainless steel body while marvelling at the mirror finish of its perfectly flat base, and launch myself into a tamping frenzy!

I am a professionally trained baristo and I have wanted a proper tamper for ages. I have a delonghi espresso machine and the plastic scoop/tamper combo it came with is ok, but this is a game changer! It's heavy! I mean paperweight heavy! The main tamper is a solid piece of machined steel which unscrews from the wooden handle meaning you can chuck it in the dishwasher if you have one, no problem. The FEEL! Oh my word! It's an ergonomic delight and fills you with confidence that you're tamping your coffee just right. I swear I am getting a better crema since using it and the lovely solid puck of coffee which ends up in the knockout box is further evidence of the great job it does. If you are still using a plastic tamper, do yourself a favour and get one of these. At under £17 for a really well made and well designed piece of equipment you won't regret it.

A nice, solid item - nicely weighted to give good coffee compression.

Decent tamper overall and feels solid in the hand with a good weight to it. It does the job well and works nicely with standard doses, giving a good, even tamp. However, I’ve found that with smaller shots or lower coffee doses, the tamper can get a bit stuck in the basket, which is slightly annoying when removing it. Not a major issue, but worth noting depending on how you make your coffee. Overall, a good tamper that works fine most of the time, just not perfect for smaller doses.

What can one say about a Tamper? Not a lot. Very solidly made and does the job.

I have a DeLonghi Dedica espresso machine that has a pressure cup of 58mm inside diameter. The supplied plastic spoon/tamper isn't adequate for tamping because it's too flimsy so have been looking for a more robust tamping tool for some time. I found plenty of smaller dia. tampers until I stumbled across this one. It's a very well-made stainless steel tamper with wooden handle and it fits the pressure vessel exactly so is far easier to use than anything I've previously tried.

Great service and great product thank you

Bought De'Longhi as I wanted to trust that I wasn't wasting my money on a cheap far east import product that I'd have to buy twice. Worth the extra premium. Great build quality with a premium wooden handle. Has a reasonable weight and tamps coffee with ease. Everything you need from a brand you can trust.