I had the pleasure of visiting Reg Barber recently at his workshop in Victoria, BC, Canada not knowing how Tampers were made, Reg was kind enough to give me a detailed tour on the equipment used including how his Tampers are made from scratch to finish, I was able to also see some of the customized tampers before they were shipped to his customers worldwide. I was curious as to if specific colors of Tampers are requested by specific countries and it was interesting to learn that Pink has been very popular in Australia while other colors have been popular in other areas of the world.

He has an interesting story to tell on how he got into the business of producing Tampers, it all began in about 1995 when he was in Seattle scouting around on what kind of business he could get into and somehow he stumbled upon some people in the coffee industry who pointed out that good quality Tampers would go over well in the industry. Fastracking to 2009 and Reg ended up going full steam head with the idea, today he produces and exports his Tampers to customers all over the world. He is always working to refine his products, a little bit of tweaking, working on new colors and finishes, he strives to produce the best quality product so that the Baristas in the industry are happy. Baristas, those who make wonderful lattes and espressos, love his Tampers, as they fit in the hand so well. You may now be curious to know what a Tamper is made of, traditionally they have been made of two fine hardwoods: African Rosewood and Maple. Recently Wenge and Zebrawood have been added. The bases are either stainless steel or aluminum. The metal bases greatly affect the weight of the tamper and how it feels in the hand. Reg still makes every Tamper by hand and the hours are often long, but he loves his work and the unique products they his company produces.

Reg is a huge supporter of the World Barista Championship, USA Barista Championship, Canadian Barista Championship as well as numerous other Barista championships held around the world, asides from sponsoring his tampers to be used in these championships he has also produced many of the trophy’s that have been awarded to the winning Baristas.

By Richard Wolak

POSTED: Thursday, July 23, 2009