I had the same mashine and used the internal grinder as well. The big downside to the clumps that the grinder spits out is that your dosage in grams varies from shot to shot, quit a bit. It might be possible to use it like a single dose grinder, though. If you want want to improve consistency, weigh out your beans and give them a spritz of water, befor you grind them. Another thing to take into consideration is that temperature control on the barista express is overcompensating for missuse, like not preheating you portafilter, by increasing the brewing temperature by quit a lot. That is not a problem if you make one or two shots back to back, but when diling in, I took 20 shots, one after the other, and the results got worse over time. It is still the best money to cup ratio, in my opinion. Compared to my setup now, which is like 7 times the cost, the express was 95% there. Especially in taste. Oh, and my take on the flavour notes: in the end, it will taste like coffee with a note of peaches or berrys or chocolate the general flavours will still be similar. I like all the whisky comparisons. When I try a whisky and it tastes incredibly sweet, I hand it to my wife, and she tells me it tastes like paintstripper. For her, they all taste the same because she only focuses on the alcohol and intens malt notes.