Imagine sipping a beverage of your choice on an outdoor terrace, enjoying the cool breeze while watching sakura petals gently floating through the air. Sounds too good to be true? Well, if this is one of your goals, you can now easily achieve it simply by making a trip to Tokyo. A Starbucks roastery has just opened there, and it’s also the biggest in the world!
Starbucks Reserve Roastery, Tokyo
This latest roastery has just overtook Shanghai’s roastery as the largest in the world, at 32,000 square feet. It is the fifth roastery worldwide, with the others being in Seattle, Shanghai, Milan and New York. Also, this is the first roastery to be designed from start to finish with a local designer – Japanese architect Kengo Kuma.
The Difference Between A Store and A Roastery
What sets a store and a roastery apart, you ask? Well, for starters, a roastery roasts their own beans in-house, so you’re able to buy freshly roasted coffee beans there. Next, they also serve unique drinks and snacks, which aren’t available in other stores. Starbucks Chief Design Officer Liz Muller said that a roastery is a “real-life Willy Wonka experience with coffee as the heart and soul”. The place is full of gadgets, pipes and machinery – beans are sent whizzing all over the place through these pipes. Willy Wonka experience indeed!
What’s in the Tokyo Roastery?
With four storeys, there’s plenty of things you can choose to do within. The first floor houses an Italian bakery and cafe. The ingredients and recipes are from Milan itself, but the goods are freshly baked in-house. On the second floor, there’s a Teavana tea room, perfect for non-coffee drinkers. Incidentally, this tea room is also the world’s largest Teavana tea bar! The third floor is for those who want a dash of alcohol, with the Arriviamo cocktail bar. Unsurprisingly, the cocktail bar pays homage to coffee, and drinks to try out include the Espresso martini, and the orange coffee tonic. Last but not least, the topmost floor is the roasting factory itself, complete with lounge area, work spaces, and an outdoor terrace seating. It is also the first Starbucks location with an “inspiration lounge” to host events.
Inspired by the cherry blossom trees that line the nearby Meguro river, this is a perfect spot to catch some falling petals in action! The sakura season should be happening any time now, so why not visit this roastery and enjoy the sakura with your favourite drink? Even if you don’t manage to bag one of the terrace seats, the roastery still has plenty of glass walls! Psst, you can also just hang out and use the bathroom there without ordering a single thing! Starbucks is introducing a “third place” concept; a place to be besides the home and office. So feel free to chill at Starbucks!
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