Our family got a new espresso machine yesterday. It’s a Rancilio Silvia, and it looks really, really good. According to most reviews, it pours a pretty good shot, too. We’re having some problems with it, though, and I was wondering if the blogosphere had any suggestions.

As far as I’ve been taught, a 1 oz. shot should take about 20-25 seconds to pour. Our machine is pouring it in about 5 seconds, and isn’t extracting any crema at all. Also, the resulting shot has the viscosity of water. Something is obviously wrong. We’ve followed the initial setup and cleaning instructions perfectly. As far as I can tell, I’m doing the shot correctly, the grind is definitely fine enough, the coffee should be fresh enough (it’s only about 10 days old right now, from when it was roasted) and I’m definitely tamping it hard enough. I can’t think of anything else to try, so if you’ve got any ideas, please post them below.

Oh, I should mention that everything else is working really nicely, especially the steam wand. Oh, how I have missed thee. Our previous machine’s wand broke a little while ago, and there’s nothing like real milk microfoam.