Useful Despite Tarnishing, The RSVP 60 & 50 mm Espresso Tamper Works!

The Good: Inexpensive, Durable
The Bad: Finish tarnishes pretty much instantly.
The Basics: Despite the initial look of the RSVP 60 & 50 mm Espresso Tamper, the finish wears right off this otherwise wonderfully useful tamper!


Recently, for our five year wedding anniversary, my wife purchased a Mr. Coffee Café Espresso Espresso Maker (reviewed here!). Because she is a savvy shopper, she read reviews of the espresso maker ahead of time and learned that one of the detractions for the Mr. Coffee espresso maker was that it did not come with all of the requisite supplies needed to make one’s espressos, lattes, or cappuccinos. In addition to not having a frothing pitcher, the Café Espresso does not have a tamper. To that end, my wife picked me up a RSVP 60 & 50 mm Espresso Tamper.

The RSVP 60 & 50 mm Espresso Tamper is a very simple espresso tamper. For those unfamiliar with the product, when making espresso, the finely-ground coffee used to make espresso has to be compressed in order to make sure the high-pressured, fast-heated water blasting through the grounds gets the most out of their flavor. To compress the espresso grounds, one uses a tamper. It is essentially a pestle for coffee grounds.

The RSVP 60 & 50 mm Espresso Tamper is a solid steel tamper. Measuring 2 7/8” tall, the RSVP 60 & 50 mm Espresso Tamper is essentially two 1/4” thick discs connected by a cylindrical handle. The tamper has flat ends on each disc and when that is used to press espresso in the metal filter basket in the espresso maker. The RSVP 60 & 50 mm Espresso Tamper adequately compresses espresso powder.

In fact, the only real detraction for the RSVP 60 & 50 mm Espresso Tamper is that its finish is remarkably thin and essentially useless. The finish for the RSVP 60 & 50 mm Espresso Tamper is initially shiny and modern. This is a very pretty tamper. However, if one ever puts the RSVP 60 & 50 mm Espresso Tamper through the dishwasher (and it is advertised as “dishwasher safe”) the finish washes right off. One is left with a pretty crappy-looking tamper that looks like it is made of lead (that’s the coloring of the resulting tamper). This tamper will not end up matching the rest of one’s coffee set.

That said, the RSVP 60 & 50 mm Espresso Tamper is an effective, inexpensive espresso tamper that works perfectly.

For other coffee-related product reviews, please check out:
Crucial Coffee #4 Permanent Coffee Filter
Mr. Coffee BVMC-SJX33GT Coffee Maker
Cuisinart Grind Central Coffee Grinder

5/10

For other appliance/tool reviews, please check out my Home And Garden Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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