Shanghai Starbucks Reserve Roastery: More Than Just Coffee

A few weeks ago I had a few people message me a link with the Buzzfeed video where a girl goes to a "fancy Starbucks" which is a located in Shanghai along with a question: Was I planning on going?

I watched this video and immediately my answer...was no. The girl in the video talked about how this Starbucks was so great and how "you can only get this here" while she talked about all the imported goods this Starbucks had. It was driving me crazy! The chocolates were from Belgium, the coffee from South America, and even the chef who made the menu was from Italy! Not to mention that the host of this video failed to mention how you even order, if you notice there aren't hanging menus from the wall like normal Starbucks. 

This drove me so insane I went and researched this place and found their website. https://www.starbucksreserve.com/en-us/locations/shanghai    What the host failed to mention is that the Starbucks Reserves (which there are now six) are supposed to be kind of like art installations for coffee. Executive Chairman of Starbucks, Howard Schultz stated, "The Starbucks Roastery environment honors coffee innovation as a modern-day Willy Wonka experience, where customers are only feet away from the theatre and artistry of our coffee craft."

You see where the beans are roasted, sucked through tubes and sent to the different bar areas of the store. They have copper and leather finishes everywhere in the store and the main roasting mechanism is covered in traditional name stamps. 

After a while, it got to me. People were asking so often and it is only one of six in the world, plus I needed to get my co-worker a gift for Christmas and I knew she would like something from the store. I caved and was actually surprised. 

The downstairs area of the Reserve is more of a coffee area and you can also buy merchandise from the store. They have sweatshirts, cups, tote bags, measuring spoons, and phone cases to choose from and yeah...they are expensive. The cheapest mug I could find was 139 RMB which is about $20 USD. Some were up to 300 RMB or $43 USD. 

Upstairs is the tea center and an alcohol bar area. That is right, they serve alcohol in this place! Then I was stumped, again how do you order in this place? I found a server and guess what? Almost every server in this store speaks English and Chinese and they were all really nice despite the fact that it was packed like crazy. A server told me that there are menus by the cash registers and I could take a peak. Servers also have their phones on them and you can order directly from them, if you can pay with WeChat. The servers give you the order number and you wait for it by the bar that specializes in whatever you ordered. For example the tea bar, the espresso bar, coffee bar, and the bakery areas. 

You can order beer and wine in this Starbucks. 

I bought an alcoholic drink and it was really delicious! This is coming from a coffee hater, BTW. Finding a chair in this place was really difficult. It is possible, but maybe have your order to go. 

I ordered the Cold Brew Lemon Sour.

After this experience, I would recommend going to this Starbucks. It is pretty fun but it is also crowded and a little pricey for the merchandise. Go for the experience but don't make this place the place you have to visit in Shanghai. 

Do you hear the call of the Shanghai siren?