First off, there's nothing wrong with doing a very detailed review and analysis of espresso cups, is there? I mean, it's normal, right? Sane, I mean.

Oh, who am I kidding. You have to be some kind of hyper espresso freakazoid to even want to consider an espresso cup comparison review. But here it is, in all it's glory.

In this detailed review and shootout, I take a look at cups from Illy, from Tognana, from Francis! Francis!, and from Saeco. Interestingly enough, 3 of the 4 cups come from Germany, where the 4th comes from Italy. You'd expect all great espresso cups come from Italy, but during the course of research for this review, I discovered that Germany is a veritable hotbed of porcelain and ceramic makers!

For the Illy representative, I'm taking a look at the Schwung series of art cups. Francis! Francis! is representated by their Zig Zag set. Saeco makes their appearance as the Romeo and Juliet 2 cup set. And the Tognanas are showcased via the Espresso Vivace 10th anniversary cups.

And why review espresso cups? Well, it's pretty simple, actually. Espresso to me is a total art form. Sure it mixes science, but the amount of time I spend just trying to achieve an occasional "god shot" (shots of espresso so good that they must have been blessed by God) totally convinces me that this is an art form that is continually evolving and is many times fleeting. With all the time spent on crafting the beverage, how could you possibly consider the container an afterthought? I sure don't.

As for this detailed review, have a look at the following pages: