i never knew something so small could be so powerful
Then you should see Raul's penis, it's REALLY small! 
And yet so powerful.....
The difference between "american" and "espresso" is just the amount of water you need to brew the coffe. I would say it takes the same amount of coffee to brew a cup of espresso and a large paper cup of Starbucks. Obviously, you won't be able to drink 8 large cups of starbucks a day, but you can drink 8 cups of espresso. If you are looking for "entertainment", a big paper cup of coffee gives you more time of "enjoyment", but if you are looking for flavour, nothing beats the espresso. I enjoy it with a drop of milk and just a little bit of sugar, enough to kill the bitterness but not enough to make it sweet. That is, it must be a little bit bitter, just a little bit. It then makes the addition of sugar a complete ritual on its own, because depending on where you are having your coffee the amount of coffee, the amount of water, and the brand of coffee makes it for a different amount of sugar.
Then I will pour just a spoon tip, remove it, taste it, and then add a little bit more, always erring on the safe side of getting short -you can't fix a too-sweetened coffee-. The amount of milk is equally important. It needs enough milk as to give the mixture a more "bodied" taste -water alone is too watery- but not too much milk or it will taste as milk with coffee, not coffee with milk if you catch my drift. For that reason you have to watch out for the waiter, as the idea of what a "cortado" is -"cortado" is the word for espresso with a little milk-.
Some waiters believe that they have to ad just a drop of milk, that for my taste is too little. Some others think that they have to add milk until the cup is full, what is wrong because you can end up with a mini-version of a "caffe-latte". You can have the milk at room temperature, hot or half-hot. With so many variables in it, the mistery of the "perfect coffee" is such that you can only get a perfect coffee every 20 or 30 times, but when you get it, it is worth it. But don't be fooled. Once you have sipped it ask the waiter for another one and it won't taste the same. If he presses the ground coffee with less force, if he pours more or less milk, if you pour more or less sugar, you will have a totally different coffee.
And that is only me. Every spanish coffee-drinker has its personal tastes. Five people can go to have a coffee and the waiter can very well end up with five different coffees in cups that looks the same.
I usually drink three cups a day. One for breakfast, one after lunch and one in the afternoon. Depending on the day I may skip on of the last two, but some days I can take four or five because coffee is a cultural thing here and if I happen to meet with a friend or relative in the streets, we would get into a cafeteria and sip a coffee while we chat.
My friends at the Nashville office got startled when I got the Bum coffee maker, started to brew a jar, and when it had almost just started I would remove it and let another jar get the remaining of the hot water. Then I would drink it with a little creamer. Creamer is definitely not like milk but hey, that was the closest thing I could get. I don't smoke, I don't drink, probably the only thing I'm picky at is coffee. Some times I don't finish my coffee. If I don't like it, what's the purpose of drinking it? I'm talking about having coffee at new places, generally I drink coffee at cafeterias I already know they have good coffee -and good coffee machines, that make a great difference-
