I'm a minor coffee geek. I'm not super serious about it but I like to have a decent machine and buy good beans. I recently bought a shiny new coffee machine. (A Quick Mill Pippa from Espresso Dolce in Vancouver)
I really like the machine but it came with a cheap plastic tamper. How does that fit with selling quality and craftsmanship?
Victoria has a strong coffee culture, with numerous roasters and coffee shops. But I hadn't seen anyone selling tampers. I thought about ordering one but looking at them reminded me of the custom shaving brushes made by Scott Bungay, our neighborhood bike repair / machine shop. (He'd already serviced our bicycles and fixed a metal wine rack for us.) I sent him an email describing what I wanted. It turned out he was a fellow coffee geek and knew exactly what I was talking about. (Coincidentally, he had the same brand of Italian coffee machine as me, although a higher end one.)
I thought the Damascus steel he used for some of his shaving brushes would make a nice tamper. And he happened to have a stainless steel tamper end that would fit well. We had a chat and worked out a design. I thought with the non-standard materials, a classic handle shape would be a good fit.
Scott sent me some photos as the project progressed, starting with the raw cylinder of steel.
It's interesting that the Damascus pattern is hardly visible until it goes in an acid bath, to reveal the final pattern. We decided to add the grooves to give a little texture to the piece.
As a solid chunk of steel it definitely has some weight to it. As Scott said, "you can let the tool do the job" [of tamping]. It's pretty much the opposite extreme from the plastic tamper. It wasn't cheap, but it's beautiful and unique, and I got to support a local artisan and fellow bicycle and coffee lover.
PS. Of course, a good grinder is the other essential coffee tool. I've got a St. Anthony's Millwright hand grinder that is both attractive and functional.
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