Starbucks Reserve Roastery opens in Shanghai

SHANGHAI, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- The first Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room outside the United States opened in Shanghai Tuesday.

It is the second of its kind, with the first opening in Seattle, headquarters of Starbucks, in December 2014.

The roastery, on West Nanjing Road in Jing'an District, is twice the size of its Seattle equivalent.

Starbucks has more than 600 coffee shops in Shanghai, more than any other city in the world.

"With the growth of Starbucks in Shanghai, we believe we have to open a roastery here," said Howard Schultz, executive chairman of Starbucks, at the opening ceremony Tuesday.

The roastery will introduce coffee culture, while pursuing quality, craftsmanship and innovation. Customers at the roastery can enjoy the coffee bean roasting process.

"The roastery is not just a new physical environment, it is an opportunity to create a new super premium brand, Starbucks Reserve," Schultz said.

Customers can also use Augmented Reality technology to see the coffee making process in their smart phones, and use mobile payment. Meanwhile, the Shanghai reserve roastery has teamed up with Alibaba for technology cooperation, according to Schultz.

He also said that China was becoming the most important market for Starbucks. The company is going to invest about 132 million yuan (20 million U.S. dollars) in China over the next five years.

Four more reserve roasteries are expected to open by 2020, in Milan, New York, Chicago and Tokyo. Enditem