Final day!
First stop of the morning was at Caffe Lusso. Sean was kind enough to meet with me and show me the Monocon and Flat grinders as well as pull some of his Gran Miscela Carmo espresso. First of all, their roastery is beautiful. There is the roasting side where they also sell their coffee, and then a room with some incredible machines and grinders. Amazing setup. He ran through the ins and outs of both grinders. The shots of the Gran Miscela was excellent, I can't wait to try it at home. Also bought some of the Lionshare to try. Their passion for coffee was really evident and it was well worth the trip.

Next was Slate. They had the Adisu Kidane on brew and the Under Pressure for espresso. I neglected to say that I had visited another Slate location the day prior and had tried the Kayan Mountain. It had a very rasberry flavor to me, so I was excited to try the Under Pressure which has the Kayan as part of the blend. For some reason, I ordered an Americano instead of an espresso. I could definitely taste the Kayan in the blend, and I ended up buying a bag to see how it pulls as espresso. I am somewhat regretting not getting the Kayan itself, or the Crema blend which looked tempting. The Adisu Kidane was excellent as has been described. I am not sure I could appreciate the difference between that an the Olympia version. But I bought a bag of the Slate to try out and compare.

I then briefly stopped at Elm. I chose one of their single origins as a one and one. It was too acidic for my taste, and I wished I had tried their 9 Swans blend instead. I had so much coffee I was bringing back I decided to pass, but Elm looks like a great place.

Last stop was at Slayer. I had a great overview of the machines, and it was well worth seeing their passion for machines. Both the Slayer and La Marzocco are clearly phenomenal machines, it seems to just depend what you are looking for. For now, the plumbing in requirement of the Slayer would make me lean towards La Marzocco, though overall I sense the DE will make the most sense. But that is a decision for early next year.

Final stop was FOB poke bar. It was a solid choice, and served well for a quick lunch.

What a trip! Seattle is an awesome city, and it was really fun to explore the coffee culture there. I missed out on Milstead and Kuma, so those will need to wait for another time. I didn't do Shiros this time though I love sushi - I am headed to Tokyo in the spring. I will update this as I try all the coffees I brought home (and it was a lot of them).

My overall favorites from the weekend:

Favorite coffeeshop experience: Anchorhead coffee
Favorite classic espresso: Cafe Umbria and Caffe Lusso
Favorite roaster: Olympia
Roaster I am looking forward to trying more: Slate and Anchorhead
Honorary mention for most over the top coffee experience: Starbucks reserve roastery
Biggest disappointment: Seattle Barista Academy
Favorite restaurant I tried: Stateside

Thank you to everyone for all the great advice!