Before we get to the product in question, let’s dive down a rabbit hole together, shall we?

As home espresso has become more of a mainstream hobby in recent years, there’ve been a number of methods and tools that have come and gone, with consumers looking for gizmos that will up their game in any possible way and companies looking to take advantage of that fact.

Among the most popular fads are these spinning ‘wedge’ distribution tools that, in theory, help you evenly distribute espresso grounds in your portafilter before tamping. But really they just smooth out the top surface and don’t affect the underlayers much at all, so you can still end up with clumps and channeling and bad extraction.

However, in December 2005 an espresso enthusiast (and retired computer scientist with a PhD in biochemistry, as it happens) named John Weiss took to the Home-Barista forums with a cheap and simple idea for solving the common issue of uneven distribution: stirring the grounds with a thin needle to break up the clumps.

I have not been able to achieve a consistent dose and distribution by sweeping grounds around in the filter basket with my fingers and hand. Perhaps if I worked in a coffee house and pulled hundreds of shots a day… but I don’t. So one day I tried stirring the grounds around with a needle to break up clumps and even the distribution. I know it sounds odd, but it makes perfect sense to me. Not only does stirring declump the grounds, but the needle evens the distribution vertically, all the way down to the bottom of the basket. I simply cannot get this effect with my fingers.

Thus was born the Weiss Distribution Technique (WDT).

If you want an entertaining dive into this whole thing, Lance Hedrick — an accomplished competitive barista and latte artist — put together a video on the history and evolution of WDT, with loads of resource links in the description if you click over to YouTube:

Aaaaaanyway… fast forward to today and you’ll find an entire market of available WDT tools (because of course) that are typically comprised of a handle with several acupuncture-style needles sticking down, which you stir your espresso grounds with, bottom to top.

Typically you want an appropriately sized dosing funnel on your portafilter to keep the grounds contained while you stir. A lot of people enjoy using a magnetic funnel because it’s super easy to get on and off, but it’s not a necessity.

I don’t know that there’s always a ton of difference between one WDT tool and the next, but I do know this one from MiiCoffee is a trusted option for many. It has just the right number of pins (9) installed in a wide shape for maximum coverage, and it comes with a backup set of extra-thin needles in case you feel like swapping out for that.

The real nice thing though is the way it magnetically attaches to the included base stand when you’re done:

Get the MiiCoffee magnetic WDT tool for $18 on Amazon.

Posted By Chris Gonzales