One of the hottest machines in coffee geekdom came blazing out of Seattle this week to debut at the Specialty Coffee Association of America's exposition in Atlanta.

It's the Slayer, an espresso machine that lets you manually control brewing pressure. At least that's what I think it does. The Slayer makers blogged about it extensively, so you can decide for yourself.

Slayer has been the talk of the espresso chat world the past few months, for example here, here and (a roaster tests it) here.

It's a hometown phenom. The machines at SCAA in Atlanta this weekend were "made at Slayer's Queen Anne-Interbay lair -- our hangout for the last eighteen months," the blog says. Production moves to new digs in Georgetown this month.

Two of Slayer's creators, Dan Urwiler and Eric Perkunder, also worked on the Treuh espresso machine a few years ago that wildly impressed David Schomer, the notoriously exacting owner of Espresso Vivace.

The third guy on the Slayer is Jason Prefontaine.

I'm still trying to figure out how much this slick thing costs.

Update from Eric Perkunder: "We have pre-sold about a month's production at $18,000 /
$14,000 (3 group / 2 group)."