For actual espresso, you need a proper espresso machine (and not just any appliance labeled as such). The Breville/Sage Bambino may be the most affordable entr

For actual espresso, you need a proper espresso machine (and not just any appliance labeled as such). The Breville/Sage Bambino may be the most affordable entry-level machine worth recommending right now, selling as low as $200-250 on seasonal/store deals. Using its pressurized (aka. dual-wall) basket with not-too-stale preground coffee, you can get espresso that could be "good enough" for many, especially for milk drinks. If you end up enjoying it and decide to step it up, you'll then want to grind whole beans fresh for the non-pressurized basket with an espresso-capable grinder, for which "good enough" manual options currently start around $60 for a Timemore C2, and around $170-200 for electric grinders like Baratza Encore, Breville Smart Grinder Pro, or Fellow Opus. Then at some point, you might notice that sometimes your espresso is "good enough", but sometimes it's not, and sometimes the stars align and it tastes amazing. If you decide that you care enough to want it better more often, you'll want a bit more consistency. You'll first want a small 0.1g scale (like a $16 Weightman) to measure your grinds going in, and then going under your cup to measure the liquid coming out, stopping the shot manually at your desired weight instead of relying on the machine's water volume (a lot of which gets absorbed in the puck inconsistently), and observe on its timer how many seconds it took to get there. Now you can play around and find out what dose (coffee grams in) and ratio (grounds:liquid) and total shot time produce the shots you like, and replicate it every time by tweaking your weights and grind setting. You can adjust to different beans that you buy. You see that too much time/water makes shots bitter, and too little makes them sour. Then you might notice that sometimes the shot comes out unevenly in fast streams and manages to taste bitter AND sour, because it's finding paths of low resistance through unevenly compressed grounds, so you might start stirring your basket with a spiky tool (that you bought for $5 or made with needles on a wine cork) for a few seconds before tamping to distribute better. At this point your espresso is probably very often "good enough" or better. Also, for some reason, you are now considered an asshole, and you should have stuck to Aeropress or instant coffee.