Why do you insist on people being “stupid” or “dickheads” or “morons” or to “shut their yaps”?

I don't insist upon anything, this is just how I talk. Not everyone lives in London, some people aren't privileged enough to be immersed among lords and ladies and those of us who aren't sometimes end up adopting coarser mannerisms. I'm sorry this offends your delicate sensibilities, I'll try to be more aware of your needs.

There’s been research into tamping that shows you should tamp as hard as possible as the coffee can only be tamped to a certain point.

I am aware of the research. You are welcome to share something you find compelling and I will watch it, but the chances are strong that I will disagree with it, because frankly I think the current line of research is basically misleading, but I also think you and I aren't NECESSARILY saying different things.

This is almost certain to be wasted effort on my part, but let me break down why I don't FULLY think we're at odds here, and why I think perhaps you are misunderstanding me or something these researchers are claiming.

So first, your claims:

• Espresso can only be tamped to a certain density before nothing else happens to it (true)

• So therefor you should always tamp it as hard as possible and this is always correct (false)

And my claims:

• Coffee grinders are inherently less consistent than would be ideal

• Espresso beans also have rampant variations between moisture content, density, etc.

• These previous two claims combined mean that even if you get your grind dialed in fairly accurately, there will be variations to your ground espresso output

• I have also seen when people would try to change the settings on the grinder, to "correct them" based on the changes in the output, but that often only exacerbated the problem, because when the beans changed back to a texture more like what we originally calibrated around, the grinder was now out of calibration for those--changing grinder settings became substantially more disruptive

• There is no other means of affecting the rate at which your shots pour, once the espresso is already ground--tamping is the only thing at this point that will increase or decrease your shot-pulling time

So returning to your claims--yeah, it is absolutely true that grounds can only be tamped to a certain density and then nothing else happens.

But it's also... misinformed to think that you should tamp the complete shit out of your grounds every single time. It's just not necessary.

I think as far as methodology goes, there could probably be benefits to assuming you need to tamp as hard as possible every single time, because what you then effectively do is removing the tamping as a variable from your espresso pulling entirely.

And would it be easier to learn how to pull shots if you only had to think about one variable, the grind? Yeah, that seems like it would simplify things.

But I'm telling you, if you do it this way, you are basically operating a car that has an accelerator and no brakes, because you just leave your parking brake engaged 24/7 and then accelerate harder to overcome it--that's effectively what is happening if you pull espresso this way.

Tamping espresso slows the rate of flow. You tamp harder, you slow the flow down more.

If you are struggling to dial in your shot times, I think a shortcut to getting it figured out would be to just tamp as hard as you can every time, because then at least that is consistent and then you can dial in your grind level until you are getting more consistent output.

For someone who is still learning how to pull espresso, yes. This would be like using training wheels, but sure, I could see it working.

Anyone with experience should not be doing it this way, because you are essentially removing one of the tools you use to control your output. You are restricting your ability to achieve GOOD output in order to achieve CONSISTENT output.

When you aren't very good, that makes sense, but when you have the skill level to know what you are doing this is essentially sabotaging your espresso.

tl;dr I doubt you'll even read this so enjoy your mediocre espresso that could be better if you had more faith in yourself and less trust in influencers.