Starbucks Taiwan press release photo.
Global coffee giant Starbucks just opened the Starbucks Reserve Dream Plaza Taipei, an approximately 21,000-square-foot coffee retail destination.
In addition to offering a broad range of coffee and culinary options, the store represents a notable sighting of the coffee company’s more upscale Reserve retail brand, which has only sporadically appeared anew since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Starbucks Taiwan press release photo.
Located in Taipei’s Xinyi District, the massive new coffee shop offers numerous “zones,” according to Starbucks Taiwan, including a central bar for classic espresso drinks alongside newer concoctions, a bakery area and a Teavana-branded tea bar.
The store also offers the “Siren’s Lounge,” a reservation-only section that offers curated tasting menu. There is also a focus on mocktails and cocktails, including table-side drink making.
Additionally, the store features a “Sensory Room” and a “Coffee Experience Room,” where Starbucks and outside coffee experts are slated to host tastings, workshops and talks.
Starbucks Taiwan press release photo.
The Starbucks Reserve brand was first introduced in 2010, and expanded to include the Reserve Roastery concept under the leadership of former CEO Howard Schultz. Between 2014 and 2019, Starbucks opened six Reserve roasteries globally, including locations in Seattle (2014), Shanghai (2017), Milan (2018), New York (2018) Tokyo (2019) and Chicago (2019).
Additionally, the company opened upscale Reserve-brand bars at its headquarters in Seattle, in New York’s Empire State Building and in Shanghai, among a handful of others.
Starbucks Taiwan press release photo.
Schultz previously said that the company aimed to open 30 Reserve roasteries throughout the world, plus an additional 1,000 Reserve-brand stores. In 2019, Schultz’s immediate successor as CEO, Kevin Johnson, described that goal as “merely aspirational” in a Wall Street Journal report.
The company has not opened any new Reserve roasteries since the COVID-19 pandemic, a period that has seen three new CEOs, plus the return of Schultz in an interim role.
In a global announcement of the opening, Starbucks did not announce the project cost of the Taipei Reserve bar.
Starbucks Taiwan press release photo.
Since a 2017 acquisition that dramatically increased Seattle-based Starbucks’ company-run operations in China, Starbucks Taiwan has been 100% owned by a subsidiary of Taiwan-based operator Uni-President Enterprises Corporation.
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