What's your average resting heart rate? :)

I do like a nice coffee but I'm content with instant[1] decaf (and even if I have 10 cups a day it's not more caffeine than the equivalent of a single cup of caffeinated coffee).

Not spending £3/$5 a day on coffee helps too. It means I'll pay my mortgage off 2 years early.

1. A lot more prevalent here in the UK: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-26869244

To me, the most important thing is the freshness of the roast, then the quality of the grinder, and and actual espresso machine comes third.

I have a $800 setup (machine + grinder), and I roast my own beans, on an iron skillet, once a week.

It's pretty difficult to find anything outside on par with the quality I can get at home (most of the time..)

It really depends on where you are. I find that espresso in the gourmet cafés in large American cities I tried is mostly on par or slightly worse than the average espresso in Rome. The grains and the roast can be pretty good, but it's often brewed slightly long for my taste.

Espresso here is so dense it's almost solid and that's the thing I can't reproduce at home.

Totally worth it though. The grinder (and coffee beans - buy them no later than a week after roast) are the most important part really.