Every once in a few years, someone invents a new revolutionary product. And like all paradigm-shifting products, there’s going to be lots of debate surrounding its game-changing nature. In the past, the world discussed the introduction of cafe crema heavily in 1948, coined by Gaggia to describe the light brown foam brewed from their espresso machine. Then, there is the all-familiar Aeropress. Millions were sold, invented by Alan Adler. It has carved its cult following with even an annual Aeropress World Championship to boot. However, some products failed miserably and ended up being white elephants, like the ZPM espresso machine, which claims to reduce the cost of a heat exchanger PID-controlled coffee machine.
(We sincerely apologize to ZPM Kickstarter backers for bringing up this topic again. For those curious to know more, the link to the Kickstarter page is below.)
The First of Its Kind Tamper to Offer Consistency, Consistency, and More Consistency.
How many times have we had days when after all the minutes of preparing our perfect puck, we still encounter channeling in the extraction. The thought of repeating the whole process sometimes is just too painful, or we are just too lazy and take the extracted coffee as it is or make a latte instead of an espresso. In May 2022, a new company from Switzerland introduced a tamper to the coffee world. The primary goal is to ensure we get a consistent puck each time we tamp, and it is perfectly even in its espresso extraction.
However, its design challenged our existing beliefs. Instead of creating a flat puck, its approach went the opposite direction, but surprisingly, we think their idea might work. They called it the idroprep tamper. The name represents hydro-preparation, as this unique tamper is gel-based with a gel-like bottom. We can already see all the questions you might have, just like when we first heard it.
How are we going to achieve an evenly compressed puck?
Can we tamp it hard enough to get the density we want?
Will the gel break and bleed or explode?
Finally, will it deliver on this promise of consistency?
Tamper Specifications
Tamper size: 58.0 mm
You can refer to the table below where Timon Kaufmann did a sample of four shots, each using a conventional tamper vs. the idroprep tamper. The highlighted row “Sum A EY” shows the deviation between the four shots, and the idroprep only exhibits an impressive 0.44% deviation compared to the 1.2% using a conventional tamper. These are very promising results.
There is a note “Replace gel if cover foil is torn or punctured!” within the base of the gel. We are assuming with this notice; that we should be able to purchase replacement gels in the event of any damage to the gel.
Don’t Tamp, Hydrofoam Your Coffee.
That’s their instruction. This first-of-its-kind tamper might improve our already complex workflow. Most of us are most likely
doing the following after grinding our coffee. Either we are dosing our coffee into the portafilter directly and using a RDT to break any possible clumps or grinding the coffee into a blind shaker. And finally, we tamp our coffee before brewing. With idroprep, we can skip all the preceding steps and go straight from grinder to tamping our coffee. Now, who wouldn’t like that?
When you press the idroprep onto the ground coffee, the very soft gel behaves very similarly to a liquid. When we apply the rules according to the hydrostatic principle, the pressure in the gel pad, and thus on the entire surface of the coffee, must be the same everywhere. The coffee is compressed evenly for a very even and balanced extraction.
Watch the video below to illustrate how the idroprep fulfills the promise of how to prepare the perfect coffee puck for delicious espresso every time.
Easier One-Step Workflow.
From the idroprep website, “The idroprep is very easy to use: no tapping, no shaking, no stirring, distributing or poking: just press on, and you are done!”
Watch the video below; the espresso flows into the cup – smoothly and evenly.
And The Price is Even more Amazing!
You can order the idroprep direct from their website for SFr 45.95, which equals roughly RM 210. Unfortunately, they are currently only accepting orders for Europe and USA. However, if you are desperate enough, you can always opt for HopShopGo service or Singapore’s vpost services. That is low compared to other high-end tampers like the Force Tamper (RM 840) or The Bravo Tamper by Roberto (RM > 800). And being above RM 500, these tampers will be subject to an import tax of about 25%.
Wait! There’s More!
With the improvements made to create consistency in espresso extraction, idroprep believes we can take extra challenges to explore the bean’s characteristics, find the best grind and the ideal amount of coffee, and the right extraction time.
They offer additional tips on their website to experiment with finer grinds and a possibly lower pressure for best results.
Conclusion
Being coffee geeks, we are always excited to see revolutionary products/toys released, and we are tempted to get our hands on one as soon as possible. From our observation so far, we do believe in the theory. However, our concern lies in whether or not will the tamped puck be disturbed when we lock the portafilter onto the group head?
Other questions we have are:
Will the filter screen still be necessary, or should we avoid using the filter screen in this case?
We want to hear from you too? Do you believe this tamper? Are you keen to get it to add to your collection?
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Detailed review in German by Timon Kaufmann
You can watch a very detailed 24-minute review of the idroprep by Timon Kaufmann, and it is in German. If you need to get the English auto-translation, you can turn on the caption and go to the setting to choose the language you want.