Hi...I'm the espresso freak
sandboxgeneral referred to in his post. The poor man made the mistake of asking for some advice about starting to make espresso at home, and now his life is a living hell with my insane instruction.
YOU"VE BEEN WARNED!!!
OK, the general rule of thumb is to spend about the same amount on the grinder as you do on your espresso machine...up to about $200.
See link for some information:
http://coffeegeek.com/guides/howtobuyanespressomachine/getagrinder
I looked at the grinder you suggested and my concern about it is that it only has 16 grind settings. Maybe OK if you are making french press coffee, or even drip coffee, but really not enough fine adjustments for expresso. Ideally you want a "stepless" grinder. That means the grinder control doesn't "click", but moves with infinite adjustment. What I have is (until tomorrow, when I get my new grinder) a grinder with 55 adjustments. It's a Rancilio Rocky grinder, but it's a bit expensive. What you want to do is look for a BURR grinder with as many adjustments as you can afford and you should be spending about $200 or so on your grinder.
In
descending order, the most important elements of making espresso is:
the coffee bean
The grinder
the proper tamp
the espresso machine.
So the grinder is the second most important element, and the first most important piece of machinery. The bean, clearly, is the most important element. You can have a $3,000 machine, and a $1,000 grinder, and if you put crappy coffee in, you'll get crappy coffee out...GIGO.
I do not recommend a spice grinder at all. And under NO CIRCUMSTANCES get a grinder with blades...only consider a BURR grinder. Either a flat or conical burr grinder. Blade (spice) grinders are NOT for espresso. Other grinds, perhaps, but not espresso.
As for the machine...Gaggia makes a good entry level machine. I had a Gaggia Baby Class, and it was excellent for the price. Easy to use, pretty forgiving for the beginner, and not too expensive. I don't have experience with the Classic, but when I get done typing this I'll go over and look at the specs. The internal materials on Gaggia machines is pretty good for the price...that's a lot of what you pay for in the machine. Also, you want the machine to put out 12-15 BARS of pressure...which the Gaggia probably has.
OK, I'll stop now, and go look at the specs of the Classic.
I'll...be...back...