Additional Accessories

There are a few additional accessories that can help making your espresso easier and better.

A grind distribution tool is useful for evenly distributing the grinds in the portafilter and break up any clumps in order to get a more uniform and consistent extraction. There are two types: the wire type and the rotating insert type. The wired ones are referred to as the Weiss Distribution Technique tool or WDT tool for short. There are a few brands available, many from Amazon, just search for "wdt tool".

Café Fabrique

Yeater

Savita

Aieve

There are many of the rotating type of distribution tool available. I have seen people using both tools—start with the WDT tool then use the rotating tool to finish and get a smooth surface before tamping.

Coffee Sensor

An accurate scale is required to get the precision weight of the coffee being put into the portafilter. One small format scale is the Miicoffee Nano (4" x 3.7"); the OXO Brew is slightly larger (8.75" x 6").

Miicoffee Nano

OXO Brew

A dosing funnel is a useful accessory when loading the portafilter with coffee. It avoids spillage outside the portafilter and keeps coffee off the rim of the filter basket.

These Normcore coffee bean "cellars" are useful for holding a metered amount of beans ready for grinding. They are airtight with a release valve on each lid to allow any CO2 de-gassing from the beans.

Going beyond the plain tamper pad is the tamper "station"; these combination tamper pad and storage units help organize all the espresso preparation tools. The best ones have the adjustable portafilter rest (as the one on the right and the Ikape below have) so that the portafilter sits level.

Normcore tamper pad/station

Wooden tamper station

And a step above is the station with the integrated knock box like this one by Ikape.

Ikape tamper station w. knock box

A wall-mounted version is also available

Wall mounted holder

Powder shakers for cinnamon, nutmeg, or cocoa powder:

AIFUDA powder shakers