title_body: Steam-Powered Espresso Machine: Crema?
upvoted_answer: There are a few reasons why you might not get a good crema:
  
  
  Stale coffee
  Coffee not ground fine enough
  Pressure too low
  
  
  With a steam-powered espresso machine (especially if it's an entry level machine), you will typically not reach high enough pressure to get a proper crema. The crema is formed by oils extracted from the ground coffee, which needs high pressure (something like 9 bars). Your steam-powered machine will probably not produce more than ~3 bars of pressure.
  
  Tamping with a spoon also seems not ideal, because it will be very difficult to achieve an even tamp. I cannot comment on how important that is for this particular machine, but with higher end pump machines it might lead to channeling and uneven extraction.