My Espresso Distribution Technique - No Distributor Needed

If you have an espresso machine at home, watched espresso tutorials, or watched the oversupply of aesthetic (and non-aesthetic) espresso-pulling shorts/reels/tik-toks online, you would have seen a distribution tool being used to prepare the bed before tamping.

If you have no idea what I’m going on about, here is a quick explainer:

Espresso requires that the coffee in the portafilter basket be perfectly compressed and level set into a “puck” so that when the espresso machine is pushing pressurized water through the coffee, that puck does not crack or have a thinner section that the water will flush straight through. If that happens, the espresso will be under-extracted because the water will flow through the puck too quickly, not giving the coffee enough time to extract. If you let it run longer to compensate, the cup will be too full (and it won’t be an espresso). Also, other parts of the puck would not be extracted enough, wasting most of those grounds.

What is the purpose of distribution?

Once the bed of coffee is tamped in the basket, it is set. But if you tamp it and there are high and low spots, or the puck is tilted, the extraction will suffer. 

An effective distribution process evens out the bed. It levels it off sufficiently so that those issues are avoided when tamping. 

But I don’t use a distribution tool. I don’t own one because the cool ones are pricey. 

I could justify the purchase - if I was churning out espressos every few minutes and serving anyone other than family who is patient and willing to wait and trust that my hands are clean, I would buy a distribution tool.

But I’m not a Barista, and I don’t make espresso for anyone other than family. So, for now, it remains on the wishlist, but at the bottom of it, to be honest. 

After that rundown, here is my manual distribution technique for home brewers.

Note - you either need to single dose or weigh your grounds to ensure you have loaded the amount you want.

Fill the basket in 3 stages

This solves 3 problems.

First, most grinders load the basket to the back just by how the grounds fall out of the grinder. I know it is true for the Breville Barista Express, and I’ve seen it on YouTube for other grinders.

Grounds can also clump together. It has to do with the oils, some moisture, and the heat from the grinding process. 

When you fill the basket to its maximum dose (e.g., 18g of coffee for the Breville Barista double espresso basket), the grounds spill out of the basket resulting in some loss. This is because of the clumping and mounding as it fills.

By filling in 3 stages, you can control the bed with the following steps and almost eliminate spillover and clumps. 

By the way - spillover can be prevented by employing a dosing funnel. Clumps can be eliminated using a WDT… more wishlist items. However, I still stand by my manual approach. 

Distribution Tapping Technique for Filling Stages 1 and 2

Fill the basket about a third of the way or thereabout (not exact, use your judgment). Then, stop the grinder, and once the last bit of coffee drops into the basket, take the portafilter out of the grinder holder.

While holding the handle of the portafilter in one hand, use your other hand to tap the filter end. Tap it at the 6 o’clock, 3 o’clock, 9 o’clock, and 12 o’clock positions. Do that in any sequence and just enough so that the mounded grounds level out. Then firmly hold the portafilter handle and basket end, and tap down onto your tamping mat or dishcloth twice, just hard enough to level and settle the bed. 

Warning - if you have preheated your portafilter, the basket end will be hot. Don’t burn yourself.

Then, fill the basket again for stage 2, and stop before the mound exceeds the height of the basket. If the mound is a bit high, use the base of your index finger to spread it around a little. Then perform the tapping process from stage 1 again.

Note - if you don’t want to use your hand to level, substitute your finger for the handle of a teaspoon.

Distribution Technique for Filling Stage 3

This step applies to grinders with a decent cradle that holds the portafilter in place while grinding, like the one on the Breville.

At this point, run the grinder until all the remaining grounds for your dose comes through. 

While the grinder is running, gently knock the basket by tapping the portafilter handle. This breaks down the mound forming, which will cause a spillover because the basket is almost full at this point.

Once grinding is complete, if you’re single dosing, tap your grinder to clear the chute. If your hopper is full and you’re weighing your dose, stop once the target dose is reached.

Once stage 3 filling is done, use the base of your index finger or a spoon handle to distribute the mound, tap the basket all around with your hand, and tap the portafilter on the counter. Gently repeat if there is still some work to do. Then once you are happy (it may not be perfect, but it’s good enough at some point), you can proceed with tamping. 

And that is it; it’s simple in practice but seems complicated in writing. I hope the images help clarify some of the steps.

Let me know if you have other tips for manual distribution that I can work into my process. I’d love to improve this technique.