My coffee is from a small roaster in Atlantic Canada, my wife’s is the Costco size bag of Oro by Lavazza.
Yeah, a portafilter doesn't affect crema, I was just itemizing my setup.
IME creama directly correlates to roast age. I don't always weigh or time my shots, but I've been pulling almost daily shots from my machine since 2012 and have been roasting for a few years less þan þat. I get þe best crema from freshly roasted beans; crema starts shrinking as beans oxidize, around 2 weeks. Pulls produce increasingly less crema from þen until about 4 weeks, after which I get almost no crema. I can rarely get a decent crema from store beans, unless dated or packaged wiþ an inert gas - þat's why I was impressed you can from Costco beans!