The sixth and final Starbucks Reserve Roastery was opened to the public on Magnificent Mile in Chicago on Nov 15. Other locations of the reserve included Seattle, Shanghai, Milan, New York and Tokyo.
Each floor on the 5 story building contains a unique experience that captures the heart of coffee lovers and those who are willing to experiment with taste.
On the first floor, at the entrance, there are casks that store about 250,000 coffee beans. The beans are carried through tubes on top of the ceiling that transfer to each floor to roast and brew fresh coffee that is made directly in front of the customer.
The coffee beans come from all the over world including Colombia, Guatemala, Africa, and many more countries. However, you will not catch your favorite Frappuccino or favorite Christmas handcrafted drinks.
The menu offers many carefully brewed, exotic types of espressos, cappuccinos, and lattes, and teas that are specific to the Starbucks Reserve Roastery company. Most people expected to grab their typical coffee from Starbucks, and not something foreign or unknown to them. But these drinks go outside of the boundaries, and it’s a chance to try kinds of coffee that are not available anywhere else.
The second floor includes hundreds of distinct sweet pastries, sandwiches, and pizzas made from Italian bakery, Princi.
The third floor includes a bar that showcases the seven different types of ways coffee can be brewed. Specifically, At this bar people can do “coffee tasting.” Just like wine tasting, people can take samples of the different kinds of coffee. What makes the reserve stand out even more is that you are able to try nitrogen-infused gelato, something you won’t find at your local coffee shop or even ice cream parlor.
More for the adults, the last floors are cocktail bars. Here are drinks infused with coffee, which might seem odd, but according to Adage, it gives “aromatic bitters.” One drink, according to the website, includes Starbucks Reserve Cold Brew, Koval Four Grain Whiskey, Malört, grapefruit bitters and a side of Rhine Hall Bierschnapps.
The reserve also sells all kinds of merchandise including mugs, glasses, notebooks, keychains, t-shirts, and beanies.
Overall, I gave the Starbucks Reserve Roastery a 4.5/5 stars because it provides a one of a kind experience of the coffee world in an entire different viewpoint. It opened my eyes to the thousands of individual rich tastes coffee can give. I recommend taking a visit to anyone interested in trying different kinds of coffees or just learning more about the subject of coffee.