I am baffled by our office's espresso machine, and I'd love to be able
to make a cup of coffee of similar quality to that of the local
Starbucks.  Mine taste fairly bad.  What's the trick?

I just drink the stuff, never tried to make it myself. However, the
baristas I've talked with in the past about this, as well as my
friends who love their espresso machines (I live in the Pacific
Northwest... coffee house capital of North America), there's several
key factors. Here's a webpage with the summary:

http://www.espressoparts.com/faq/section1.html

Apparently, skill is less important than the equipment and recipe. So,
it's not you, it's probably the espresso machine setup at work!

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher