Tricking out a Super Auto

[CoffeeGeek]

SHOOT. I thought I'd posted the "top secret" way here - apologies to everyone watching this. The secret?

Use fresh ground coffee in the chute bypass ;-S

Even then, this particular super auto cannot brew properly enough (temperatures, puck size, dose, volume) to get the luscious shots you can get out of a $200 espresso machine with some coaxing.

[klarinetta]

@CoffeeGeek I find that freshly roasted coffee ground seconds before I brew in my Bialetti Brikka moka pot to be much better than any super automatic machine I've tried. But then again nothing beats a good quality semi-automatic and a skilled barista.

[snoopyflick]

Hmm, anyway to get the crema more reddish brown too? Cuz from here it looked like it was fairly blond. Otherwise, why must you make it a secret?

[joellawry]

so how do you do it???

[TheChinglish]

that drip drip drip drip that I see... tell me if I'm wrong but it looks like you tightened up the grind so much that the machine is barely able to build enough pressure to get an extraction.