This article is a lookback on a visit to Slayer Espresso's headquarters in Seattle, Washington.
Last April, I traveled to Seattle to attend the SCA Global Specialty Coffee Expo. During my time in Seatte, I had the opportunity to tour Slayer.
We were first met by Sarah Dooley who gave us a rundown and demonstration of the unique brewing abilities a Slayer espresso machine has with flavor profiling
During this demonstration, Sarah gave us a visual and sensory comparison of the "Slayer Shot" versus traditional espresso extraction. She did this by dividing both shots into thirds. This allowed us to see, smell, and taste the difference between a typical shot and the way Slayer recommends brewing on their machines.
After this demonstration, Kelly Traw accompanied us with Sarah and gave us a tour of their assembly line. Here we got to see the very careful process of assembling each model of Slayer espresso machines. It's really a sight to see the painstaking detail that goes into assembling and making sure every machine performs to the utmost before it is crated and shipped off to a customer. I'll let these next photos tell the visual story.
Lastly, we had the opportunity to get an up close look at Slayer's newest model, Slayer Steam. The Slayer Steam, if you haven't heard, was designed to bring consistency to bar-flow. It has numerous unique features including what Slayer has coined "Vaporizer Technology" which consists of super-heating water to produce "dry" vapor instead of just using a traditional boiler tank.
To read more on Steam, you can visit Slayer's page here.
I am very grateful for the opportunity to tour Slayer and the hospitality that Sarah, Kelly, and the rest of the Slayer staff showed us during our time there.