(Photo Credit: Starbucks)

Five floors of Starbucks magnificence

Starbucks just unveiled its biggest Reserve Roastery location in the world in on Chicago’s Magic Mile. The opening of the world’s biggest Starbucks Reserve Roastery had a huge line of Starbucks fans waiting to check out the new location, with some waiting since 5 a.m. in freezing cold weather and driving from other states just to be at the opening.

The store finally opened at 9 a.m. to reveal the new 5-floor venue spanning 35,000-square-feet of coffee shop, being the 6th Starbucks Reserve Roastery location in the world with the other locations in New York City, Milan, and Tokyo. The concept of the Reserve Roastery locations is to create an “immersive coffee experience” featuring special items not included in your average Starbucks including coffee-inspired cocktails, three different coffee bars serving seven different brewing methods, and liquid nitrogen gelato.

They offer traditional brewing methods including pour-over and French Press, along with the new siphoning method which uses vacuum pressure as the means to brew coffee. In the center of the location, they feature a 56-foot steel cask that stores the coffee beans after being roasted and distributes it through the whole building using an automated system.

On the first floor, Starbucks roasts green coffee beans and serves traditional coffee drinks like cappuccinos and lattes. The location serves as a roastery and is estimated to roast over 500 pounds of coffee every day including the supply for the coffee served on-site.

The second floor features the Princi bakery featuring desserts, fresh bread, and pizza. They even have a specially designed conveyor system to deliver fresh baked goods to the first floor of the roastery. The third floor is the “Experiential Coffee Bar” where customers can order unique drinks that are way beyond your average cup of coffee.

This location is also breaking records being the only Starbucks in the U.S. to offer liquid nitrogen gelato. On the fourth floor, they have the barrel-age coffee bar and cocktail bar. The bar serves coffee-inspired drinks like the Minted Cold Brew and Smoked Cold Fashion. Some of their drinks are coffee served as a cocktail for a totally new experience. The presentation of the cocktails are over the top pairing new ingredients with coffee and featuring an ice cube with an imprinted logo exclusive to the Starbucks Reserve Roastery.

There is also the Arriviamo cocktail bar serves traditional and new exclusive cocktails. One of their unique concoctions combines cold brew, whiskey, grapefruit, and Malort (a favorite in Chicago).

This new location has over 200 employees and is already generating a big amount of business for the Chicago area. Who is ready for the ultimate coffee run?