The Trouble with Illy

We've been making espresso at home for a few months now. The local market has the Lavazza Caffe Espresso and it's pretty good.

Last week Maria and I were wandering a Whole Foods. They had the Illy espresso. We've been meaning to try it, but there's no Whole Foods by us, and no other place by us has it. So we got a couple cans. It's more than twice as expensive as the Lavazza - ouch! Could it be worth it?

Caspita! Illy really is a lot better. It looks better. It tastes better.

So now we have a problem. Is Illy better enough to justify the expense? Illy will ship to you free if you buy six cans at a time, but it's still twice as much as the Lavazza. Maybe there's another alternative? Maybe there's a blend I can pick up at Intelligentsia that we like better than Lavazza, and that's less expensive than Illy?

And is this the slippery slope to full-blown espresso snobbery? How the hell did this happen to me?