At the heart of all coffee brewing lies extraction, the fundamental process that greatly influences the flavour of your brew. Achieving a consistent extraction is crucial for making delicious coffee: over-extraction may result in undesirable bitterness, while under-extraction can lead to an unpleasant sour taste instead.

A lot of innovation in the coffee world today focusing on making extraction more consistent, either through improvements to existing techniques and technologies or as new extraction-focused devices altogether. The Wire Distribution Tool (WDT) is one such relatively recent development, and Brew Tool's entry-level offering is sure to enhance your espresso extraction without breaking the bank.

The WDT's purpose is straightforward. When coffee is ground, it has a tendency to clump together, particularly when it's ground really finely, like for espresso. This results in uneven distribution of the ground coffee in, in this instance, your portafilter. This can cause channelling, where water takes the easiest route through the coffee puck, causing a mix of under-extracted and over-extracted areas. This in turn leads to an imbalanced and inconsistent flavour.

A solid tap on the side of the portafilter addresses the distribution challenge, to some extent, but only goes so far. The latest approach to solving the problem of channelling is the Weiss Distribution Technique (also WDT) which breaks up the coffee using fine needles. The extra fine needles of Brew Tool's Coffee Needle help to more efficiently break up these clumps as you run it through your coffee puck prior to tamping, resulting in more even distribution, better extraction, and more delicious espresso.

Brew Tool Coffee Needle WDT specifications

• Total length: 150mm
• Needle Length: 76mm
• Diameter: 2cm
• Body Material: polished aluminium
• Needle Material: 304 food-grade stainless steel