Best ground coffee for espresso?

[LakeFlyPie]

I need to find a finely ground coffee to make good espresso in my Gaggia machine (not pods). Lavazza isn't fine enough, Illy is better but not perfect. I previously used Costa espresso but they seem to have stopped producing it and have been taken over by evil CocaCola. I know grinding my own is probably the answer but a decent grinder will set me back at least £150 -200
TIA

Why would a decent grinder cost that much?! I have one from Lidl that cost £13 and it does the job just fine!

Do you have a coffee shop near you?
All towns where I live have one.

They grind the beans for free.

Monsoon Malabar is my favourite!

I don't think any ready-ground coffee is fine enough for espresso. You could buy whole beans and get them ground for your machine (you'd need to go to an actual coffee store, obviously, not buy off the shelf).

Or as dither says, you can get a grinder for much less than £150. What do the ones you're looking at DO? For that money I'd expect them to make the coffee themselves, and make my toast too

Krups are good and often in the sale in department stores, or try Amazon.

If you have a decent local coffee shop you can usually buy beans from them which they will grind according to your needs, so you can request a fine grind for espresso.

Failing that, you can buy small hand grinders online for about 10-20 pounds.

I've been told by a coffee geek friend that a 'decent' burr grinder is what I need and that'll be pricey.
I had a Krups one previously (blade not burr grinder) and it didn't grind fine enough and burnt out pretty quickly.

The clue there is in the phrase 'coffee geek' And 'decent' is very open to interpretation but I suspect in this context is a way of showing coffee superiority.

I've got a Krups coffee grinder, and another one I use for spices, and both are lasting admirably, so maybe you've just had bad luck. Also, the coffee one certainly does grind fine enough for espresso (I have had in the past both stovetop and the kind of machine you have), so I'm not really sure what would be different about yours.

There are obviously other reasonably-priced brands though if you've gone off Krups.

I too have a Gaggia Classic. Interesting you say that Illy isn't fine enough as I find it takes ages to brew as it is so fine - even if I give it only a light tamp. Lavazza brews much more smoothly.
Guess a lot of it is personal taste, but I'm interested to know how mych you tamp Illy and why you say that it isn't fine enough, so I can perhaps make better coffee.

We have one of these www.hario.co.uk/ceramic-grinder-skerton.html