Awesome! I was looking for some good shot pulling tips for my home espresso machine!

Damn you, it's midnight and you just gave me coffee envy.

Be right back.

Hmmm...I've never been a huge fan of espresso, but this made me want some good espresso, like I saw in the video, very much.

Where was I? Ho, yeah, stuff he didn't mention (because he's a barista and doesn't have to deal with it): get fresh coffee. It's the most basic, yet most important change you can make to your intoxicating drinking habit. Whatever the type of machine you have, from plastic-y kitchen espresso machine to semi-pro behemoth, or even if you don't drink espresso and are, say, on drip brew (at least get a French press, for God's sake), this is the change you will notice the most. See that coffee with a use-by date two years from now at the supermarket? It's not fresh. The one twice the others' price in a fancy tin box? Not fresh. And the ones in vacuum packing? not fresh either. Buy fresh coffe. Get it from a local shop. It won't even cost that much.

More info:
http://coffeegeek.com/
http://coffeesnobs.com.au/
http://www.ineedcoffee.com/

^ and go for organic fair trade if you can find a local roaster. It will cost a bit more, but it has a much higher caffeine content in my experience, so the cost per unit caffeine is probably about the same, and the flavour is amazing.

Why is Ed Norton doing the voice over?

I mostly agree with the fresh coffee theory. The best section in Whole Foods is undoubtedly the coffee booth/counter, with every bin marked with the roasting date, and none of the more than 3 days old. It's an amazing experience to go through and pick up 1/4 bags of 5-8 different coffees and compare them. The flavors will blow your socks off, if you're used to the normal commercial products.

Then, I remember Illy. Illy turns out some of the best tasting espresso I've ever made. Yet it's not actually fresh... That's when I get confused.

Sadly, my Jura espresso machine finally shot craps, and I'm not in a position to replace it right now (or even to buy a decent grinder, which was built into the Jura). So I'm back to a drip coffeemaker. After all, even bad coffee's better than none at all. The good news is, I found a remarkably good commercial coffee. Seattle's Best - Henry's Blend. Don't laugh, but I'd wear it even gets hints of the flavor of a real espresso...

My first purchase when things improve is definitely going to be a decent grinder, combined with an Aeropress...then I'll see if I still like the Seattle's Best as much as I do right now.