Slayer has some sweet videos up on YouTube including this one about how a Seattle coffee shop handles high volumes.
Psyd So, the vids are uploaded by someone with the online name of ‘Slayer’ and has a link to the Slayer website, and I’m not quite sure what all that means. Especially since the machine that they’re showing in this vid is one of a direct competitor… (La Marzocco Linea EE) ?!? 0 Reply October 15, 2009
Luis The video is to demonstrate how this cafe deals with high volume and flow of customers. The guys at Slayer posted it for other coffee places to see how one place in Vancouver B.C. that habitually has lines out the window deals with a high volume of customers-an assembly line of sorts. It’s not a vid to promote the machine as much as to show one way of dealing with high volume in a coffee house. I think that LM was a 4 or 5 group. There are other videos there and on Vimeo of the machine, how it’s built and how it works to see. 0 Reply October 15, 2009
Yuri Artibise Man, this makes me miss Vancouver. There are about 5 coffee shops within a two minute walk from there, and they are all packed. Although a (local) chain Artigiano produces some of the best coffeeI’ve ever had, and they have great food as well! Phoenix is making great strides, but has a way to go until it makes ‘big leagues’! 0 Reply October 16, 2009
Victor The espressos in the videos strike me as being a little odd. There’s quite a bit of ranting and raving about the taste and quality of the Black Jack being brewed, but other than maybe the thick, velvety texture of the crema, the colors and mottling (or lack of) coming out of the pf are indicative of likely sourness. Maybe it’s just the cam, but I doubt it. 0 Reply October 16, 2009
Psyd @ Luis That’s what I was thinking, but I was just not sure of what connection this post had to Slayer, if any. Nice of them to showcase the LM, though. @ Victor Never misunderestimate the amount of damage that can be done by an inadequate white balance. I’ve had espresso that looked really nice IRL, but looked rather green and sickly on ‘film’. 0 Reply October 16, 2009
Victor Okay. Not sure what that meant. I think my white balance is pretty adequate. IRL? Republic of Ireland? Must we speaketh in such tongues? 🙂 0 Reply October 16, 2009
Luis @Yuri, I agree. @Psyd my personal experience from living in San Francisco and visiting Seattle often is that there is more camaraderie amongst people in places like San Francisco, Seattle and Portland in their “competition in the marketplace.” They all seem to share ideas and everyone improves as opposed to hoarding ideas. Also, it’s my experience that cafes in general are hyper-local and have loyal followings so it doesn’t hurt or hinder your business. If anything it’s more word of mouth advertising from another coffee professional and that’s positive to the consumer when industry professionals speak highly of one another. Then the consumer just has to make a choice and sometimes that choice is “all of the above” 0 Reply October 16, 2009
Psyd @ Victor Sometimes given two different coloured light sources (i.e., sunlight and flouro, or quartz and incandescent) the camera chooses one over the other, and it isn’t always the one that is falling in the cup. And IRL is shortcut for (I know, teen-age cheese-eating text-speak, I’m so : ( ) In Real Life… Again, sorry… @ Luis I’ve experienced the Seattle / San Francisco vibe, and I like it. It still blows me away a little, though. 0 Reply October 17, 2009
Victor Gotcha on the IRL. Yeah, texting isn’t my way. Regardless of the light sources, films, and/or monitors (let’s make it black and white), none of those ‘spros looked as good as those guys were making them out to be. Not by a long shot. 0 Reply October 17, 2009
Luis @Victor- the shots, to me, looked fine given the quality of video: There wasn’t any blonding, channels were pretty direct (more a reflection of the tamp), crema was golden brown and had impressive integrity. I know from personal experience the tiger striping is impressive-I don’t think that shows in the video due to the quality of video. No shots I had on the Slayer were sour or bad except the ones intentionally done so to demonstrate some differences. If you ever get a chance to go to Seattle contact them and they’ll meet with you. The closest Slayers to us in Phoenix are in San Francisco at Sight Glass and Four Barrel. 0 Reply October 18, 2009
Victor I guess I’ll just have to give it a try on my next biz trip to SF coming up soon. Let’s see, Sight Glass is the place that doesn’t like anyone taking pictures inside………..I’ll go there. The whole concept is still really interesting because of lots of new, unknown variables are introduced…..at least to me they are. 0 Reply October 18, 2009
Luis @Victor-can I come with? Sight Glass uses Verve Coffee currently and they don’t have a whole lot to see because I think they are still a kiosk. Four Barrel was using Stumptown Coffee but I think they’ve started their roasting operation…either way I’m sure it’s palatable. 0 Reply October 18, 2009
Tom Maegdlin I had a Ehtiopia Yirgy Natural Process from Verve that may in fact go down as one of my top 3 espressos of all time. 0 Reply October 19, 2009
Psyd Speaking of great espresso machines, La Marzocco answers the questions posed by the Synesso Hydra, the Slayer, and the Speedster by bowing it’s new Strada in Milan. Here: , Courtesy of Terry Z from Espresso Parts NW. Prototype pics and production drawings here: Video of prototype here: 0 Reply October 24, 2009
Psyd Ah crap… Lesse here… Bow? Prototype pics? Video? (Psyd, I fixed your links – Chris) 0 Reply October 24, 2009
Psyd Thanks Chris. Feel free to edit for clarity whenever you see fit. I constructed the links the same way that I’d do it on the forum, and I thougt it’d work. (freagin computers…) ; \. 0 Reply October 25, 2009
Chris Tingom Yeah, they’re tricky. You have to use standard HTML anchors. Like this: <a href=”http://www.expressoparts.com”>Link Name</a> 0 Reply October 25, 2009
Steve K I like the video…now, I need a video of my learning how to get a line like that out my door daily!!!! WOW……in due time, right??? (SODO) 0 Reply October 27, 2009
