Starbucks Opens ‘Willy Wonka Experience’ Based Coffee Theater
In 2011, Starbucks launched its reserve line as a small batch of coffee beans with an Arabica background. By 2011, this reserve launched to over 22 countries. As the line grew, Starbucks decided to open over 100 stores that are exclusively aimed at selling their Reserve brand. The first store is expected to open in 2015.
Meanwhile, Starbucks also decided to offer a great new opportunity to its patrons by adding an extensive roasting and tasting room in the city of its origin. The initial plan was to develop a more premium coffee brand and open a new chapter in the coffee giant’s world.
According to the NY DailyNews, it has taken over two years to restore the 100-year-old building in Seattle to create the Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room. The doors to this wondrous Starbucks coffee room opened last week as the first of over 100 planned stores they hope to open between now and 2016. Their goal is to spread these coffee tasting rooms through the United States and Asia carefully but promptly.
The new Starbucks Roastery covers over 15,000 square feet and was designed to further their artisan blends. The interior of the building shows their purpose with hand stained wood finishes, leather hand rails, overhead pipes for the coffee beans to travel through, exposed wooden beams and hammered copper equipment.
Starbucks hopes to use their concept to create an interactive space where their patrons can learn about coffee, how it is roasted and how it is ground. Their best comparison is that it will become a ‘Willy Wonka experience.”
The “coffee’ theater” has been a thought in the mind of Starbucks for over a decade, and the idea behind it is to honor the endless pursuit of developing better coffee for a worldwide audience.
Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz, said,
“Everything we’ve ever done has led us to this point. This is the moment of the next generation of Starbucks.”
There are very few people who know all there is to know about the wondrous flavors of Starbucks coffee, and now, they have the opportunity to learn. Visitors will now learn how Starbucks coffee beans are sourced, roasted and ground into the company’s brand of “micro-lot” coffee.
Starbucks projects that in the first year this new roastery is open, they will have roasted enough coffee to supply their 1,500 stores around the world.
