A present

The Card Player (as he is often known on Facebook) likes his espresso. He likes it after lunch, or sometimes mid-morning, between breakfast tea when you realize you need a bit more than that before going out the door. He can down an espresso in a single gulp. They are not for sipping.
He does not like 'Jus de Chaussette', even though many of my American associates would find my filter-brewed coffee way too strong.
I like expresso, but I like coffee too. I like having a big hot mug to hold, and I like having this hot, thick beverage to sip over the course of several minutes. That sort of volume of espresso would be a problem.
So at his apartment there is an espresso maker, and it can make a medium-size mug of coffee if you oblige it to.
And at my house there's the filter machine, and that is it. Breakfast, I have coffee, he has tea (as usual), and then we just don't have a cup after lunch or dinner, unless we go out for it.
This situation, obviously, is unsatisfying.
So he has bought himself a present. I got to pick the color, via the screen of his computer and not in real life at all, so who knows if I will like it or not. Blue, I think. They do not yet come in zebra-stripes or poisonous frog spot designs.
Delivery today, and he will be terribly disappointed I'm sure, to discover that I have a reception-thingy for the League against Cancer at work, and will not be home until late-ish.