In an era when $5 fancy coffee drinks are the norm, a growing number of people are willing to invest $1,000 or more to make the perfect cup of coffee at home.

Seduced by the gleaming, multi-levered, counter-hogging machines that have begun crowding catalogs and showrooms, more people are willing to spend more money (sometimes significantly so) in pursuit of that perfect cup of Joe.

Consider this the centerpiece of the consumer revolution in coffee. A generation ago, a cup of coffee meant a bottomless mug at the diner, an overboiled brew from the home percolator, or even – shudder – a spoonful of instant.

Today, it’s not uncommon to find homes better equipped than their local Starbucks. And sensing a trend, the kitchen products industry has worked hard to make sure big spenders have plenty to spend it on.

For example, Cooking.com offers a combination coffee and espresso “center” with multiple heads, plumb-in filtration, a volumetric pump and integrated burr grinder. And all for a mere $3,500 or so.

Even bargain-driven retailer Target offers several $1,000-plus machines on its Web site.

And people are buying them. Sales of coffee and espresso machines costing more than $100 jumped by 42 percent during the past year, according to consumer research firm NPD Group. The year before, the growth was just 10 percent.

Hugh McMillan holds a timer as he prepares an espresso with his Isomac Tea home machine.

High-end machines are seeing similar growth. At Internet kitchen goods retailer Cooking.com, sales of espresso machines costing $1,000 or more increased by 56 percent between 2004 and 2005, says spokesman John Gabaldon.

And out of this caffeine-driven frenzy arose a passionate subgroup – espresso drinkers.

Hugh McMillan is one such consumer. The Salisbury, Conn., computer consultant dates his own coffee obsession to a demonstration of a high-end Jura Swiss automatic espresso machine in a kitchen store three years ago.

“It was absolutely delicious,” he said. The beans? “Maxwell House.”

Today, his gear includes a $1,500 Isomac espresso machine.

All for a 1 1/2-ounce shot of espresso? For McMillan and coffee lovers like him, it’s just the beginning.

“Who knows, maybe another $500 would have gotten me a sexier lever,” he says.