Hey pat, Thanks for the question! When you put more water through the espresso you risk over-extraction which may result in bitter flavor. There's a bit of a dance between how much water is going through and grind size. As one puts more water through the coffee the grind should be courser. The perfect parameters are subjective - depends on personal taste and beans used. I tend to use shorter extractions of 30ml/1oz at max aroma/strength setting and finest grind size. I can make a large and bold Americano using a double espresso at those settings and adding about 120ml/4oz of hot water. That may be too much for some. The Magenta at highest strength setting grinds ~11.5g of coffee per brew cycle. So my Americano uses a total of 23g of ground coffee. That's a triple espresso! At lowest strength setting the machine grinds ~6.5g per cycle. For a more normal double shot Americano turn down strength a couple notches. On the other hand you could make a singe espresso at highest strength setting and 60ml/2oz volume using same amount of hot water. You might want to adjust to a mid-range grind size if you start to detect bitter flavor from the beans used. Hope that helps! Marc

Hi Todd, Thanks for the question. The Gaggia Super-auto Maintenance Package has everything you need. It also includes a brew group service kit which is something you'd want to do about once a year depending on usage level: www.wholelattelove.com/collections/maintenance-packages/products/gaggia-super-automatic-maintenance-package Strong can mean different things but if you want a bold cup with a little extra caffeine a coffee like Carraro Globo Rosso is a good choice: www.wholelattelove.com/products/carraro-globo-rosso

Hi Iris, we generally recommend using the finest setting for all of those espresso-based drinks. I would go courser if it's choking your machine (espresso is dripping out or not coming out at all), or maybe for a longer coffee if you're experiencing bitter/over-extracted flavors. AJ