How to use the lever press correctly

To answer the second part of your question ('the pros and cons of an espressomachine'):

Pros:
- Taste. If done right, you will capture much more of the coffeebean in your cup.
- Milk foaming. Most espresso machines have the possibility to froth milk for cappuccinos or lattes. Look up 'latte art' on Google Images for some inspiration :-)
- Process. The making of coffee becomes an enjoyable ritual with shiny machines, hot water and steam.
- hobby: there is an enormous amount of ustensils, tools, cups, coffees, online forums etc. to discover for enhancing your espresso.

Cons:
- Taste! as much more taste ends up in your espresso cup, you will also taste the defects much better (bad or stale coffee, badly grind, wrong water temperature etc.) will give you a sour or bitter cup.
- Technique. It takes practice to prepare a good espresso (except if you opt for a machine that takes coffee pads - but your choice of coffees will be limited and often not fresh).
- Cost. Espresso machines (good ones) are costly. And it doesn't stop there. To make really tasty espresso you might want to grind the beans yourself, so you'll need a grinder that can grind fine enough for espresso. After that you might start to suffer from upgraditis...
- Room on the kitchencounter. An espresso machine can take up quite some space.

Hope this helps!

I'm not a professional barrista but I spend a lot of time drinking expresso based drinks and I would suggest that you start with a latte base (for a small drink, that would be two shots of expresso and hot steamed milk to the top) and add cayenne pepper to it. I would also sugest that you only add about a 1/2 teaspoon at first. You could also add chocolate to create a mole type drink and calm down the heat of the pepper, if needed. Use a dark chocolate, if availible, as you don't want it to be to sweet if you are trying to highlight the spice.

Make sure that you stir it all the way so that you don't get uneven distrubution of the pepper, I would actually add the pepper right after the the shots and stir then, and then again after adding the milk. Also, don't forget that the temperature of the beverage is going to enhance the heat that you get from the pepper, so for the less spice tolerate you will need to tone it way down.