Behind the Magic
Our mission is driven by a dedication to craftsmanship.
PUQ doesn’t replace the barista’s role; we support them in
elevating every cup withtools that blend technology and artistry.
About PUQ
Precision tools
empowering baristas to
master their craft effortlessly.
THE PUQPRESS PHILOSOPHY
There is more to life than coffee, but it’s a great place to start!
And wherever there’s good coffee, PUQpress isn’t far behind. Actually we’re right up there – on the bench next to the espresso machine. The Robin to the barista’s Batman.
In baristas we trust. But we wanted baristas to be able to trust us.
So we set out to create a tool they can depend on. And that tool was the PUQpress: the world’s first precision coffee tamper. We recognised that manually tamping grounds at the same angle and force was the thorn in a barista’s side. PUQpress replaces the pressure of manual tamping with precision and consistency.
Making good espresso is an art, but it’s also a science.
Controlling the tamping variable leads to increased efficiency and quality, sure, but it also offers the freedom to focus on other parts of the craft – those that can’t be automated. It was in this age of automation that we realised giving a machine the boring and repetitive stuff enables the barista to do everything that makes the job worthwhile. Profiling new flavours. Creating beautiful latte art. Providing premium and personal customer service.
We’ll do the hard part. You take care of the crema.
Because that’s the best bit: in coffee, and in life.
SERVICE EVERY STEP OF THE WAY
We strive to make quality tools you can rely on now and for years to come. We’ve built the PUQpress to be a reliable companion, day in, day out.
Providing the highest calibre after-sales service is just as important as selling you a quality tool in the first place. And that’s a promise. Because once you partner with us, we’re partners for life.
Since we hit the market over a decade ago, we’ve evolved in many ways – but in others we’re still the same. We’re the same people and our vision has been the same since day one. And the heartbeat of our business? It still is (and will always be) you – the professional barista.
We know the importance of good service. And we know how important it is for you to give that to your customer, the coffee drinker.
So we want to give that to you – the person pulling the shots.
A LOOK UNDER THE BENNET
Each PUQpress begins its life at our factory in the small Dutch city of Vlaardingen. Maintaining 100% European production is something we’re extremely proud of. For centuries Europe has been synonymous with quality. We want our tool to be a reflection of that!
Every piece of a PUQpress is assembled in our workshop right here in the Netherlands. Keeping assembly in-house gives us flexibility when it comes to customisation – while allowing us to maintain quality. If a client wants their machine’s cabling to be 10cm longer, we can make it happen.
Innovation is key, and our R&D enables us to keep evolving and experimenting. We’re big believers in continuous optimisation. We’ve learnt that what we need to keep pushing forward doesn’t exist yet. So we created our own tools to get things just the way we want them.
A WORD WITH THE MAKERS
Above all else, this workshop is our home. Sure – there are processes and production lines, but a team of just six full-time employees who share lunch every day brings with it a family feel. Not just because they break bread – but because many of them have been with us since the start.
Let’s start at the beginning, with Laurens. Almost 10 years ago, the engineer-turned-founder of PUQpress worked on a nearby oil rig before deciding to make the first PUQpress prototype. T
oday, he’s involved in nearly every aspect of the business, from design and product development to sales and servicing.
There’s Meijndert,
who works on the assembly line, and has been with the company for 7.5 years. He also happens to be Laurens’ uncle. “I started helping with assembling the prototypes in the shed behind Laurens’ house. Laurens’ mum – my sister – made us coffee and sandwiches, and we all ate lunch at the kitchen table.” Meindert introduced Arie, who has also been on the assembly team since the beginning.
Together, the two of them went from assembling 100 units a year, to 10,000. Of the early days, he recalls: “I don’t know how we managed that if I look back on it now, but somehow we did!” They quickly outgrew the shed, and moved to the current workshop’s location in Vlaardingen.
“Today, we’re able to create three times that volume with our team of 8”.
Another member of that team is Thea,
who has been happily assembling PUQpress machines alongside Meijndert for the last two years. Not long after Thea joined came Jolanda, also in assembly: “The whole team is 12 people. It’s a nice and cosy team,” she says. “In everything we do, we ask ourselves: How can we make this work better?”.
It’s a question we continually revisit as a team. Laurens, Meijndert, Arie, Thea and Jolanda; but the entire PUQpress team.
It’s the North Star that continues to guide us in our aim to make your work – the physically hard work of a professional barista – that much easier.
Our team
Laurens Pluimers
Founder
Steven Koornneef
Chief Operations Officer
Almar Bouw
Commercial Director
Thomas Verheij
Marketing Manager
The Production Team
Without production, no products.
It began in a café in Delft, The Netherlands.
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There was a girl, a barista who loved making coffee and getting better at it. She enjoyed the precision, experimenting with flavours, the music, the customers, the freedom—basically, she loved everything about her job. Except one thing. She did not enjoy how sore her arm became from tamping coffee, day after day. (We get this.)
Enter Laurens Pluimers. His brother owned the café. After overhearing the barista talking about her sore arm, Laurens felt he could help. As an engineer working on “jackup rig ships,” he thought, “If I can stabilize a 10,000-tonne ship on stilts during heavy storms, surely I can stabilize a coffee bed.” Laurens loved building machines and knew how to do it. In just one day, he built a contraption that could tamp coffee flat with machine-like precision and consistency. Sure, it was big and bulky, but it worked brilliantly.
PUQ Press was born.
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The pain disappeared, the barista was happy. Other baristas at the café soon noticed that they were brewing identical shots every time they used Laurens’ machine. Flavour improved, the workflow became faster and easier, and they loved the freedom. Now they could focus on practicing latte art, experimenting with new coffees, and talking with customers. It felt like a guilty pleasure—everything was just better.
Laurens was hooked. Not to the girl, but to perfecting his tamping machine. Designing jackup rigs was his day job, but making the Puqpress perfect became his passion.
This was 2011.
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Automating tamping was a bold move in the coffee world back then. The specialty coffee scene was on the rise, breaking away from corporate, pre-packaged, and automated solutions. The tamper had become an icon for baristas, representing craftsmanship and handmade quality. But Laurens persisted. He believed that technology could enhance the craft, freeing up mental space for creativity and improving efficiency—allowing baristas to dedicate more energy to testing recipes and honing their skills.
Fast forward a few years and multiple versions later, and Puqpress is now trusted by the industry, loved by baristas, and used in thousands of cafés worldwide. It’s more than just a gadget. Puqpress is an instrument that proves technology can improve the craft. We believe in innovation, and sometimes that means going against the grain to achieve excellence. We’re here to help baristas focus on what truly matters: their craft.
But the journey didn’t end there.
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By 2023, Laurens was hearing something new. Baristas from all over the world were sharing the same story—they couldn’t imagine working without Puqpress anymore. But now they were asking him: “What’s next? How else can you help us?” These questions ignited something in Laurens, sending him back to the drawing board. He realized that there was room to expand the vision. Puqpress had solved one problem, but what else could be done to assist baristas and elevate their craft even further?
And so, the concept for PUQ grew.
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No longer just about tamping, it was time for PUQ to evolve. With this came a shift: PUQ Press became simply PUQ. It was time to create an entire ecosystem for baristas, extending beyond the press category. The first step was the introduction of Prep, a new category that debuted with the Navigator—an innovative tool designed to perfect the distribution of coffee grounds, maintaining the same level of precision and consistency that PUQ Press brought to tamping. And this is just the beginning. Who knows what will follow as PUQ continues to push boundaries and redefine what’s possible in the coffee world.
Forget the naysayers.
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We handle the pressure. When we took the repetitive strain off your hands, magic happened. When we relieved you of the pressure, you relaxed—and your mind opened. You experimented. You searched for new flavours. You improved your craft. By giving away control of tasks better left to machines, you gained real control. Control of the process. And now, with Prep and PUQ, the journey continues.
