Gallery: To Compete With Fancy Brewers, Starbucks Opens a Shrine to Coffee
Courtesy of Starbucks01Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room-P25 Roaster-7
Soon, instead of going to a Blue Bottle or Intelligentsia, discerning coffee drinkers might go to a Starbucks Reserve store.
Courtesy of Starbucks02Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room-Coffee Library-5
Over the next five years, the company will roll out more than 100 new stores dedicated to its line of Reserve coffees. To kick it off, the company opened the Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room in Seattle.
Courtesy of Starbucks03Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room-Main Bar-8
The Roastery covers 15,000 square feet, and is a coffee lab-meets-museum.
Courtesy of Starbucks04Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room-Clacker Board
The whole experience revolves around the coffee-making process, from roasting the beans to brewing a cup of pour over at exactly the right temperature.
Courtesy of Starbucks05Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room-Coffee Library-2
Customers can watch as employees schlep burlap sacks of green coffee beans from the trucks outside and begin the roasting process.
Courtesy of Starbucks06Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room-Main Bar-3
At a bar, baristas prepare coffee using some popular, more handcrafted methods, like pour over, with a Chemex, or with a Clover.
Courtesy of Starbucks07Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room-Main Bar Detail
Subtle, but educational, design details are everywhere. The engravings (seen here) in the bar vary in depth, just like the flavors of different beans.
Courtesy of Starbucks08Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room-Coffee Library-7
The spaciousness of the Reserve also means that Starbucks can double the size of its Reserve coffee program, and lure in purists with newer, richer blends.
