Online Barista Training Part 2: Levelling and Tamping

In this online barista training article, you will learn how to correctly level your coffee in a portafilter and tamp the coffee. Correct leveling and tamping allow you to get a nice and even coffee stream without any beading. If you want to know how to become a barista with no experience, this course is perfect for you to get started.

Barista’s routine is made up of a sequence of short but crucial actions. Every step defines the cup of coffee; you will serve your customer. To be a good barista, you need to master the basic coffee preparation techniques like distributing and tamping. After grinding and dosing, you do it before locking a portafilter into a coffee machine’s group head.

In the previous article, we talked about coffee grinding and dosing. Now let’s have a look at what comes after that.

Barista Training: Coffee Levelling

After you dose your coffee and get an even mound in the center of the portafilter, you will need to level or distribute your coffee. Leveling is an action of manual evening out and distributing the grounds in the basket.

The purpose of leveling is to facilitate even compression of the grounds during tamping and reduce excess waste and overdose.

You should never avoid leveling. You might not level the only case when you use a more dense heavy coffee and a doserless grinder, and you have a lot of headspace. In this case, you can get a very even amount of coffee in the center and on the sides of the basket with lots of headspace. 

Leveling Technique

• Find the finger that works best for you. It might be your index finger. Twist and turn your finger to move coffee around the basket.
• Level your coffee in the direction of North, then South, then East, and eventually West. If you have long fingers, you can reach all the way across.
• With the last push, push any excess grounds off into the knock-box.

Try to minimize the amount of waste. The coffee has traveled a long way to your coffee shop, and it’s really priceless.

Barista Training: Coffee Tamping

If you want to become a barista, you also need to pick up a proper tamping technique.

So what is a tamper? A tamper basically consists of a handle (can be metal, plastic or wooden) and a metal base. It is used to compress the coffee evenly and ensure a smooth consistency in the coffee.

Choose to work with a tamper that fits you personally, and that feels like it was tailored to your hands.

• When you tamp, hold your tamper like a doorknob.
• Place a tamper flat in a portafilter and turn your entire body to hit 30 lb of pressure more easily.
• Push the base of the tamper with the meat of your thumb.
• Tamp your coffee with only one smooth motion applying even pressure.

When tamping coffee, it’s important to watch how you hold your body. Never bend your wrist to prevent any wrist damage. If the wrist is bent and the shoulder is unbalanced, and it will cause shoulder pain quickly and damage your wrist.

If you want to be a barista, you also need to know about the safety measures that come with a job. Online barista training is the best way to learn about barista jobs and prepare for your coffee business career. 

Brought to you by Barista Training Academy, “The Beginning Barista,” Your Ultimate Prep Guide to Getting Your First Job as a Barista” is an ultimate resource that is available online and is affordable for anybody who is looking to start a career in the coffee industry. For more information, visit our blog.