Slayer?

[gsan]

Does slayer make the very best coffee machines on the market? Delonghi, krups, rancilio, ect... who makes the very best coffee machines around and im not talking about bells and whistles...? What machine can give me the smoothest coffee with the most milk? Smooth gourmet tasting coffee. Anyone?

 

[shadow745]

What's up with the 'best' questions posted way too often, bwahaha? What's ideal for me might be a joke to others as better, best, etc. is opinion and not much else. Slayer machines are definitely top notch for what you want out of one, but the design seems to revolve more around lighter roasted coffees so the water pressure/flow rate can be manipulated to make some coffees more palatable. The current trend is around flow profiling, pre-infusion, etc. and the main reason is most coffees roasted these days are simply underdeveloped and typically quite sour for the most part. Some I've seen others try to enjoy would be more along the lines of toasted, not roasted. Anyway...

If you have the countertop space for a Slayer and can plumb in as required, run what is likely a 240v connection to power it (I could be wrong on that, not sure but some machines can be power hogs), don't mind paying a buttload up front just to have one, as well as long term updates/maintenance just to have quality espresso then have at it. For my taste I'd say invest in a quality manual lever like the Cremina, a quality hand grinder and you will get the best possible end result with some time/effort applied. Keep in mind that the most important change any of us can make is the COFFEE being used as all else depends on that single variable. Then balanced water and so on.

Thing is in modern society some tend to think buying big guarantees a better end result, but hardly the case with coffee. Skill/technique, then coffee, equipment and water is a pretty good balance of how things will fall into place.

 

[gsan]

What's up with the 'best' questions posted way too often, bwahaha? What's ideal for me might be a joke to others as better, best, etc. is opinion and not much else. Slayer machines are definitely top notch for what you want out of one, but the design seems to revolve more around lighter roasted coffees so the water pressure/flow rate can be manipulated to make some coffees more palatable. The current trend is around flow profiling, pre-infusion, etc. and the main reason is most coffees roasted these days are simply underdeveloped and typically quite sour for the most part. Some I've seen others try to enjoy would be more along the lines of toasted, not roasted. Anyway...

If you have the countertop space for a Slayer and can plumb in as required, run what is likely a 240v connection to power it (I could be wrong on that, not sure but some machines can be power hogs), don't mind paying a buttload up front just to have one, as well as long term updates/maintenance just to have quality espresso then have at it. For my taste I'd say invest in a quality manual lever like the Cremina, a quality hand grinder and you will get the best possible end result with some time/effort applied. Keep in mind that the most important change any of us can make is the COFFEE being used as all else depends on that single variable. Then balanced water and so on.

Thing is in modern society some tend to think buying big guarantees a better end result, but hardly the case with coffee. Skill/technique, then coffee, equipment and water is a pretty good balance of how things will fall into place.

So no one fully automatic machine or otherwise all by itself can make a rich cup of coffee that can be gourmet then?

 

[shadow745]

So no one fully automatic machine or otherwise all by itself can make a rich cup of coffee that can be gourmet then?

A desirable end result doesn't just happen with most things in life. After trying all sorts of machines, grinders, etc. I will gladly state the absolute most important variable is the coffee being used.

Terms like gourmet, specialty, etc. are simply subjective/opinion, so figure out what will work for you and maximize that as there is no perfect solution that will suit all of us.

 

[gnar lee]

I find the question - or rather the combination of questions rather weird.
Slayer or Delonghi is like saying Ferrari or Toyota.
If you know how to pull espresso and steam milk properly and you use a machine that's doing its job well (minimal temperature deviation, constant pressure etc.) this will give you a smooth gourmet coffee experience.
If it has to be a Slayer then I'm not sure, because technically it's that different from a "regular" dual boiler machine - even though they strongly promote their needle valve during pre-infusion.

If you wanna get the most out of your beans and taylor the extraction towards your roast it would probably be best to use a machine that can do full range pressure or flow rate profiling which the Slayer cannot.

But if you don't know how to do it, even the best machine will give you a dissatisfying end result...