When I was looking for the best places for coffee in Seattle, I was given a long, long, LONG list of places to visit, luckily for me. One place that stuck out amongst the list of small and large , independent shops and chains, was Starbucks Reserve Roastery and tasting experience. I had never heard of it before, and instantly was met with countless articles and reviews, expressing how ‘not all Starbucks shops are equal’.
Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room. The worlds first new type of store Starbucks offered, it combines coffee production, menu tasting and architectural ‘whimsy’.
I’ve been there several times now, and each time I’m amazed as to how impressive not only was the expansive coffee selection and menu, offering exotic and unique types, but also the 15,000 square foot interior. Instead of a cramped coffee shop, with limited seats, seemingly irritated uncaffeinated people and fluorescent lights, your’e met with a sleek wooden design, and glass and brass details from designer Liz Muller. Impressively, a small starbucks team travelled through Europe for a week looking at coffee houses with small roasters, to try and translate their vision for the new store into a larger scale in Capitol Hill, Seattle. It’s no surprise that with the amount of money that went into building this ‘vision’, forty baristas from around the world moved to Seattle to work there. The two large roasters are capable of handling over half a ton of coffee per hour, and even imports the bakery items from Rocco Princi’s bakery in Milan.
The only negative thing I have to say about it though, is how expensive it is. Instead of paying, say $2.50 for a cold brew, you might pay $6 depending on extras you might want, thanks to the small batch roasting (and clever ‘one of a kind marketing’). It’s definitely not a quick ‘pit stop’ place where you can grab a cup and go, but in reality that’s what makes it so unique, as you’re paying for the experience of being in one of only a few of the stores in the world. It might be a tourist trap, full of overpriced merchandise and groups of people wanting a picture to show how they’ve been there, even if ironically they have glass of wine or a beer and not a coffee, but its a cool place to visit.
