What is Puck Preperation?

Puck preparation is everything you do to your puck after you grind it but before you tamp it. Making sure you have a effective workflow here can help make sure your espresso is evenly extracted and consistent.

Weiss Distrubution Technique (WDT)

One of the most effective techniques one can use in puck preparation is known as the Weiss Distribution Technique, created John Weiss on the Home Barista forums.

To do this, the coffee is ground into a portafilter with a funnel to decrease mess, and stirred vigorously using a fine needle. By doing this clumps are broken and the coffee is even distributed throughout the portafilter, homogenizing the density of the puck. Then the portafilter can be tapped to collapse air pockets and subsequently tamped.

Over the years the process has been refined, especially with the commercial availability of funnels and WDT tools. The next couple of sections will show what a modern WDT process looks like, focusing on levelling the bed and breaking up clumps.

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