Starbucks has gone super specialty with the opening of its Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room in Seattle, United States, last week. The huge new store will have baristas brewing Starbucks “exceptional collection of unique, small batch coffees” using one of six brewing methods including pour over, Chemex, French Press, siphon, espresso and clover-brewed coffee. Starbucks says the 15,000-square-foot room was designed to give customers a 360-degree view of the new roasting area, which will produce 1.4 million pounds of small lot coffee in 2015. “We have designed a space that will heighten all the senses. This is a real-life Willy Wonka experience with coffee as the heart and soul, where customers will see coffee being moved through the roasting process right before their eyes,” said Liz Muller, Vice President of Concept Design for Starbucks. “We have opened up the world of sourcing, roasting and brewing so that our customers at any one point are only feet away from the theater and artistry in a sophisticated yet relaxed environment.” Starbucks has restored a 1920s building, nine blocks away from its original store, back to its original façade. “Everything we’ve ever done has led us to this point,” said Howard Schultz, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Starbucks. “This is the moment of the next generation of Starbucks.” The roastery will display information on what coffee is currently roasting and a glass projection wall will show images of coffee at the company’s farm in Costa Rica. The store, which has been in development for more than two years, will use a Probat G-120 Roaster and a Probat P25 Roaster. The coffee will supply all of Starbuck’s Reserve coffee stores around the world. In 2011, Starbucks opened its first international Reserve store in Tokyo, Japan and has since expanded to 22 countries, including China. Recently, Starbucks opened its first ever Reserve location in Latin America as part of a three-level store serving only Colombian coffee. The company is planning to roll out its specialty stores in over 100 locations in the next five years. The first stores will open in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington D.C. Watch the Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room launch video here.
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