As H&CNews readers will know, Starbucks has opened its first Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, nine blocks away from its original store in Pike Place Market.
The interactive Roastery and Tasting Room is dedicated to roasting, coffee education and increasing availability of the company’s small-lot Reserve coffees. Every Reserve coffee bean sold to customers will be roasted in this facility. The consolidation of small-batch roasting will allow the company to expand its Reserve coffee line to 1,500 locations globally, as well as open at least 100 stores designed to highlight these rare coffees exclusively, starting in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington D.C. An additional Roastery is planned for Asia in 2016.
“This Roastery is the fulfilment of a decade-long dream – an homage to our relentless pursuit of coffee innovation that will create for our customers the most immersive, sensory demonstration of how we source, roast and craft the finest coffee from around the world,” said Howard Schultz, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Starbucks. “Everything we’ve ever done has led us to this point. This is the moment of the next generation of Starbucks.”
More than two years in development, this experience will allow customers to engage with Starbucks passion for coffee through moments of education and discovery devoted to beverage innovation and excellence. Every detail of the space was chosen with intention and reflects the handcrafted nature of coffee from bean to cup.