Making good espresso is a challenge, requiring attention to many details. In brief, you want fresh roasted, fresh ground beans, brewed at the correct temperature, extracted with the proper pressure, in a clean machine.

It's all about the beans (I prefer Northern Italian Style -- roasted to dark brown, with no surface oil OR only a few spots of oil on the surface of the bean). The grinder is essential, and many feel more important than the coffee machine itself. You can probably find an adequate basic espresso machine for $200 or so, but can easily spend ten times that on a good home machine.

If you want to get started on a budget, a good grinder is: the Baratza Maestro Plus Grinder <http://www.1stincoffee.com/solis-maestro-plus.htm> for $130. The manufacturer sells refubs from time to time for c$80.

For a good brewed espresso-ish coffee, not true espresso, you can try the ever popular moka: <http://tinyurl.com/7uzatxz> or my personal favorite, the aeropress <ttp://tinyurl.com/7engf6v>.

Knowledge is power. Read all about making coffee at Coffee Geek <http://coffeegeek.com/> and Sweet Marias <http://www.sweetmarias.com/index.php>.

They say laughter is good medicine. Don't take coffee making too seriously, watch *Insufferable Coffee Snobs,* today <http://tinyurl.com/3n2eb6s>.

Larry