More than 8000 individually numbered tampers have gone out worldwide as ‘Pullman’ tampers.
In 2002 Greg Pullman discovered his shiny new coffee machine’s built-in tamper was far too small. Learning that no retro-fit was available, he made one himself, and as an afterthought dropped a quick email to the supplier advising he’d machined up a perfectly-sized stainless steel retro-fit. The supplier promptly told some of his past customers and a few orders rolled in. On December 13 2002, the first of what became known as the “Vanilla” tamper was shipped to a customer in Victoria. There were expectations that sales of this product could go as high as 40!
10 years later, more than 8000 individually numbered “Pullman” tampers have gone out worldwide and demand is continuing to grow!
A lot has changed since 2002. The two original Pullman Tampers (the ‘Vanilla’ and its brother the ‘Deluxe’) have been put out to pasture, having been replaced by the Barista (2008) and the Nexus (2011).
So what makes a good tamper? One of the key criteria with making good coffee is repeatability, so as far as a tamper goes, the two most important factors are that it’s a good fit in the filter basket, and that it allows the barista to tamp evenly and consistently. Pullman already do custom sizing so point one was covered; but when developing the Barista tamper Greg was surprised to discover how many subtle details can make a big difference on the second point. Development on the Barista tamper commenced in mid 2006 and it didn’t reach market for another two years, but in that time a lot was learnt. Greg literally started with a lump of play-doh for the initial shape and used its basic measurements to create a few ugly-looking tampers. These prototypes were then distributed to top Australian baristas along with feedback forms, reworked and sent out again.
Greg was surprised by some of what he found. While no-one explicitly said this, it was obvious that most people actually wanted a balanced tamper!
Up until then, tampers were either too light, too heavy or with a combination of a stainless steel base joined to a aluminium or wooden handle, which resulted in a bottom-heavy medium weight unit. So putting everything together the tamper had to be extremely comfortable over many hours of use, be able to cater for a range of hand sizes, be balanced, extremely strong yet fairly light and come in a wide range of colours.
It was hard work creating a tamper to meet those specifications but the Barista ended up ticking all the boxes. The base remained stainless steel but was hollowed out to make it lighter. The space was filled with a rubber insert with just enough give to add comfort without sacrificing control. Removable spacers were added between the base and handle to provide a range of handle heights. And finally the handle materials were chosen to ensure as balanced a tamper as possible. The tamper received critical acclaim and many of the lessons learnt went into the design of the Nexus tamper.
In an age of cheaper and cheaper imports, it’s a breath of fresh air to learn Pullman Tampers are completely, 100% made in Australia – design, manufacture, assembly, checking and dispatch are all done locally using top-quality Australian components and local labour. Local manufacture means Greg can maintain a close relationship with all of his suppliers.
Greg says the creativity’s not exhausted yet and there are some new ideas he’s working on. If it’s anything like what’s already been, they’ll be worth waiting for!
www.coffeetamper.com.au
