Coffee

Homemade latte with
Intelligentsia coffee beans

One of the best purchases I've made in the past year or so is a DeLonghi espresso machine. I drink latte everyday, and often a couple of times a day, but around where I live, there used to be no good coffee shop (A good one just opened its door to business a couple of weeks ago...oh my poor wallet is going to suffer...). So instead of paying 3-4 bucks for a cup of sour, bitter, and burnt latte at Starbucks or Coffee Bean, I figured I should get my own espresso machine and make my own latte. Granted, DeLonghi is no Rancilio Silvia V3 (droooool....), but it does a decent job at 1/6 of the cost of a Rancilio Silvia, pulling shots with decent amounts of crema. 

Of course, what is more crucial to making good espresso is high-quality freshly roasted beans. After all, coffeeshop chains like Starbucks and Coffee Bean have really expensive espresso machines, but what makes their espresso taste bad is their beans, which are often stale and overly roasted. At home, I use Intelligentsia's Black Cat espresso beans (yum!), which you can purchase online or if you are lucky like me and live near an Intelligentsia or a coffeeshop that uses Intelligentsia beans, you can purchase them locally, without having to shelling out money for shipping.