Starbucks Opens Premium Reserve Roastery in China
Starbucks announces the opening of a “premium reserve roastery experience” in Shanghai with the “first fully-immersive coffee wonderland” in China.
The coffee chain promises a new multi-sensory retail experience, offering customers an immersive narrative: manufacturing and café environments including roasting, packaging and brewing; integrated offline and online augmented reality (AR) digital experience; and the debut of food freshly baked onsite by Italian food purveyor, Rocco Princi, a premiere in China
China is Starbucks’ fastest growing market, with a store opening every 15 hours. Starbucks owns 3,000 stores across 136 cities, with 600 stores only in Shanghai.
As part of their experience in the 2,700sqm building, customers can visit one of three coffee bars offering multiple brewing methods, explore specially-crafted teas at the 3-D printed tea bar, enjoy freshly baked Italian artisanal food by Princi.
The Shanghai Roastery will become the first Starbucks location, and the first-of-its kind in China, to seamlessly integrate a real-time, in-store and online customer experience. Roastery customers are invited to immerse themselves in the first Starbucks augmented reality (AR) experience – accessible through the custom-designed Roastery digital web-app platform or on Alibaba’s Taobao app.
At the Shanghai Roastery, Italian baker Rocco Princi brings his artisanal offerings to Asia for the first time. Princi, famed for bakeries in Milan and London, joins the premium Starbucks Reserve brand as the exclusive food pairing to its rare, small-lot coffees. Princi is the exclusive food offering in all Starbucks Roastery locations, including Seattle, Shanghai and upcoming locations.
In Shanghai, a team of more than 30 skilled Chinese bakers and chefs bring artisan baking to life. Much like Rocco’s European locations, the Shanghai site is centered around ovens, with more than 80 different menu items – from flaky cornetti to focaccia sandwiches filled with Parma ham and Italian mozzarella – for breakfast, lunch and dinner, baked fresh onsite. A Commessa (or culinary concierge) will guide customers through the breadth of offerings.