Is the Best Espresso Tamper a Coffee Leveler?

Back in October of 2018 the Asso Coffee Jack Leveler made its first appearance on our YouTube channel in a video highlighting premium filter baskets and shower screens from IMS. While it was purely incidental that it made such a cameo (Sauro Dall’Aglio who was visiting at the time simply had one in his bag that made it onto the set), the Jack’s appearance generated a lot of excitement and inspired us to add several Asso products to the catalog. 

This experience caused us to start rethinking the process of tamping. Sauro taught us that by properly setting your grind and the depth of the blades on the leveler, you could essentially use the Jack as a substitute for tamping altogether. At the time, we really had nothing to compare this to. Fast forward a year later and our discussions with Danilo Lodi introduced us to the Bravo Tamper and more importantly for this discussion, the Bravo Distributor. If you want to learn more about the Bravo Tamper, I’ve included a link for my discussion about it in the “Related Articles” section at the bottom of this blog. As for the distributor, Danilo preferred it as the design eliminated something he referred to as “pre-tamping,” but I’ll get into that a little bit later.

Through testing we found that Sauro was right and the Jack became a popular option among our sales team when it came to recommending equipment to help guarantee shot prep consistency in multi-user households. Later on in this article I’ll be going deeper into this topic as I dial in a Jack with Zach for tamp-free prep and get you a micron analysis of the required grind setting. Now, you may have noticed that we’re not living in the “No-Tamp Timeline” and while we (now including Zach) were a bit shocked that the Jack really could be used in place of a tamper, Danilo has his own thoughts about why you might not want to, but you’ll have to read on to find out.

What are Levelers and Distributors?

Also known as distribution tools, distributors or levelers are espresso prep tools that are used to evenly distribute grounds in the portafilter for a level bed before tamping. This helps encourage straighter tamping as the base of the tamper can rest flat on the coffee and all that’s left for the barista to do is to apply force.

While the number of blades, depth, and adjustability all may vary when it comes to distributors, they all accomplish the same task in the same way. The top half of the distributor acts as a handle while the bottom half levels the coffee. Similar to a tamper, the bottom half is the same diameter as the portafilter basket so it can be inserted and removed cleanly (most levelers are either 58 or 54mm in diameter). The top half has a bigger circumference than the basket so the entire distributor can sit on top of the portafilter and be spun without falling off. By spinning the distributor the blades also rotate and simultaneously distribute the grinds across the basket.

Setting Your Depth

Unlike tampers which can be used the same way regardless of your dose or grind size, levelers require an additional bit of calibration in order to use them properly. In particular, the blades need to be adjusted to the correct depth so that the full surface of the blade comes in contact with the coffee. When set correctly, when you spin the leveler the coffee will be properly distributed. As a general rule the outer rim of the leveler should always rest flat on top of your portafilter and after you spin it, the surface of your puck should be flat with no visible impressions from your blades.

One thing to make note of is that on levelers that lack a locking mechanism for depth adjustment (in particular the Asso Jack or the Eureka levelers) it's possible for the leveler to self-adjust. This occurs when the blades are extended too far and resistance from the coffee applies enough pressure to actually adjust the leveler. On levelers that have some form of tension based locking system, if the blades are extended to far, the edge of the leveler will not be flush with the basket, allowing it to sit at an angle within the basket which prevents even distribution.

With the Bravo Distributor this will never be an issue because the design prevents the blades from substantively descending into and compressing the coffee in the basket, but I'll cover that in greater "depth" in just a bit.

Before moving on from this section I want to make the point that while nearly every distributor/leveler has adjustable blades to reach different depths, the Asso Jack is the only one I've tested that tamps as well. Marc used to do a trick where he would knock the unbrewed puck from the portafilter into his hand to show how it held its form. I once tried to recreate the trick with a product I was checking out at a tradeshow. Needless to say, at least my mess was impressive.

Mixing and Matching

Depending on the manufacturer, the shape of the blades used to distribute coffee, the method of depth adjustment, form factor, and in some cases, whether they are paired with additional tools (like Rocket Espresso’s 2 in 1 distributor and tamper) will vary. Build quality and materials will also differ, but commonly, most distributors and levelers are made from a mixture of stainless steel, aluminum, or wood. These days, most manufacturers have gotten in on the leveler game so if you’re looking for co-branded equipment, I’ll list them for you below.

If you're looking to make a brand agnostic choice, Saint Anthony Industries makes a very nice distribution tool called the Wedge and if you've paired your machine with a Eureka grinder, their levelers might still be a match either way. Personally I'm holding out hope for a future Wiedemann leveler so we'll see if I turn out to be right.

The Bravo Distributor

Bravo’s distributor is unique compared to all of the other distributors we carry. Returning to the topic of “pre-tamping” that I mentioned earlier, the Bravo Distributor is actually designed specifically to reduce this phenomenon as much as possible. The top half of the distributor is hollow so it gently descends when placed on top of a portafilter. In talking to Danilo, he put it to me like this ,

“I never used any levelers because they’re always pre-tamping. You put the leveler on the portafilter and it tamps the coffee, then you spin it and it breaks up the top layer again and you tamp again. This creates inconsistency, especially when you’re switching between different coffees.”

He went on to talk a little bit more about how he was finally won over by the distributor but only after testing it for over a year. In addition to not tamping the coffee like a traditional leveler, Danilo was also won over by the fact that the Bravo Distributor preps coffee differently from most over levelers, pulling out his phone to show me a video to demonstrate.

“So the Bravo Distributor is the only leveler that distributes coffee from the outside-in and it also distributes the entire bed of coffee down to the bottom of the basket. Other levelers only distribute coffee at the top of the basket.”

Going back to the piston-like design of the Bravo Distributor, you can actually control the descent speed of its top half via a set of screws in the top. The screws control airflow, so by removing them, the top half of the distributor can be made to descend more quickly or more slowly based on your preference.

The Asso Jack Leveler

In stark contrast to the Bravo Distributor, the Asso Jack was pitched to us by Sauro as an alternative to tamping. It was something we had never seen before and we were initially skeptical at first. The truth is that both Danilo and Sauro were right. Distributors/Levelers do tamp coffee, and with the correct grind and blade depth the Jack can be used in place of a tamper to replace it entirely. To give you a better sense of what the “correct” grind is, I challenged Zach to dial in a coffee on a Profitec RIDE using a Ceado Chameleon and a Jack Leveler.

Zach's Test

"Overall I'm pretty impressed with the Asso being able to pull a great looking shot at the same grind size as a Bravo set up. At around 247 to 265 microns, we were able to pull a shot the same exact time as the Bravo Tamper with only a .3 gram difference. The key factor here though was taste. With these two nearly identical shots, the Asso was much brighter and not as smooth of a texture with a bit of a lingering finish that was unpleasant compared to the textbook single origin shot that I got from the Bravo. Here I chose to go finer with my grind to cut down this acidity and hopefully increase the body. Setting the grinder to a grind size sub 250s and pulling a 29 sec shot did just that but led to a body that was a little too heavy on the finish with almost no acidity. Now this would be great for a nice Italian roast or espresso blend but with this single origin I do want to utilize these acids to create a sweet complex cup so I used triangulation to find a point in between. With this we created a shot much more similar to our Bravo, this time with a rich nutty body and very nice initial sweetness. This shot however still had a finish that lingered and turned a bit harsh. The next steps to really fix this would be to then dive into temperature to soften the aftertaste. We do have some flexibility since all of our shots were pulled at 199, we could increase our temperature to see if there are some other organic compounds yet to dissolve that would even out our finish."

From Danilo’s standpoint, he avoids levelers because the compression from the leveler leads to inconsistency when you tamp again. With the Jack that isn’t the case, there is no tamp. It’s for this reason that we have historically recommended it in situations where multiple users might have difficulty performing the same tamp. That doesn’t mean that the Jack is a set and forget and you will have to adjust the depth of the blades based on your dose, grind and basket. That means that not only are you adjusting grind based on the coffee you’re brewing, but also your leveler.

On the other hand, the Bravo Distributor still requires you to pair it with a competent tamper to make the most of your investment. If you’ve read my piece comparing the Bravo Tamper to the BOSeTAMPER (if not I’ll have it linked below for you) then you know that spring-loaded tampers like the Bravo can still lead to inconsistent tamping in the wrong hands and not everybody has room in the budget for something like the BOSeTAMPER. This is another area where the Jack shines, consolidating what would otherwise be two purchases into one.

Regardless of which side of the debate you find yourself on, both the Bravo Distributor and the Asso Jack have received incredibly positive feedback from customers and remain popular choices for a large number of people.

Wrapping Up

This blog was an interesting one for me to revisit. The original title “The Best Espresso Tamper is a Coffee Leveler” was quite a declaration, but one backed up by both our own testing and the testimonials of customers. Zach found the Jack could be substituted for a traditional tamper with very minor changes to the grind size and that it tended to favor body over acidity, so you may need to experiment with temperature in order to tease out different in-cup characteristics. On the other hand, Danilo is firmly anti-leveler with the exception of the Bravo Distributor. Ending up somewhere in the middle, I updated the title, rephrasing it as a question. “Is the Best Espresso Tamper a Coffee Leveler?” Well, that’s for you to decide.

Photography and Graphics by Grace Walker and Elley Ellison

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