some thoughts on the starbucks reserve roastery
[exterior]
I spent a few days in Seattle a little while back and didn’t have any third-wave coffee, unless you count the Starbucks Reserve Roastery. (I also had an awesome Da Yu Ling at Teahouse Kuan Yin – please do check that shop out if you visit Seattle.) As silly of a place as it is, I’ve wanted to see its comical – and also quite appealing – design for a while. And of course, there’s the morbid curiosity of wondering just how good Starbucks coffee can be…
The exterior is pleasant – tons of glass and metal, white stone. Walk in and you see a gigantic espresso bar with beans being tossed about by vacuum chutes. The copper and reclaimed-esque wood are a crafty aesthetic borrowed from various third-wave classic shops – I’m inclined to mention Sightglass or Four Barrel in SF. At this bar, you can just walk up and order in the traditional third-wave bar flow.
[main bar]
[Congo spro]
I ordered an SOE. It was, in fact, a “Congo Lake Kivu” because they didn’t have anything better. (I would’ve liked to try a coffee which had the potential to be really excellent – a Yirg or a Nyeri or a Kirinyaga or something along those lines.) In case you haven’t heard, the Reserve has some crazy equipment – Black Eagles, Mythos (I have no idea how to pluralize that word)… Anyway the shot came out pretty pleasant – it was a little funky and herbaceous (that’s the green coffee talking) with pleasant orangey-sweetness and creamy body. Really, it was very decent. As was later true of the brewed coffee, I was perfectly content with it. And I’ve been served much worse in third-wave shops. I’ve even been served worse in some pretty decent shops that I frequent regularly.
[the smaller Probat]
The roaster portion is very clearly indebted to third-wave norms. There are the requisite Probats, a smaller one for this location and a larger one for distribution. Thankfully, Starbucks didn’t go full-third-wave and find a vintage roaster. It’s my understanding that fetishism for vintage roasters means that the all-in cost of a fully-retrofitted Probat is higher than a new one. And, of course, Probat only makes classic-styled roasters because of the vintage-artisanal-mania of specialty coffee. (Though I readily admit that you really do want the thick walls and lovely construction of the classics. It’s just amusing to see Probat taking after Red Wing.)
[modbar pour-over]
We went downstairs and tried some brewed coffee. Rather, before that, we took a seat, a server came over and talked to us – she was super friendly and pleasant and really did offer some of the best service I’ve received in a coffee shop – and we ordered. I had a pour-over pf the same Congo from upstairs made on the Modbar (might as well have multi-thousand-dollar water dispensers, right?), which came with a really amusing but over-the-top card. To me, it tasted like black pepper, tobacco, burnt toast, and sweet orange. The coffee was clearly well-developed, well-extracted, and sweet – no vegetality or off-nut flavors. It was also a little smoky, but not obnoxiously so. As it cooled, it became slightly papery but not excessively so. Again, like the espresso, quite decent; not exceptional but very acceptable.
Tipping at the Reserve is a little strange. There are tip bins, but they seem little-used. Mostly, they just have coins. Credit card prompts don’t offer an opportunity to tip. I really do hope the baristas are paid decently.
[records; or, uh, maybe the folks here would call them vinyls? and a crosley so you can promptly screw up the grooves]
In the end, visiting the Roastery is a bit of a surreal experience. It’s like being in a third-wave shop built by aliens who’ve done their homework.
It’s interesting to think about how much coffee is caught up in trendsetting and nonconformity. Now that the third-wave notion has been entirely co-opted into a traditional commercial model, we see even stranger and contrarian ideas emerging – like Dashwood’s experiments with pod espresso and Freese’s instant coffee (Sudden Coffee). There’s still a possibility to make great third-wave coffee, but you’ll have to differentiate yourself through quality and spread info via word-of-mouth rather than grand architecture, design, and indie signifiers (e.g. records).