Italy’s first Starbucks is unbelievably beautiful

Starbucks lovers, you know the exhilarating feeling when a new branch opens near you. You pick up your trusty drink, occasionally with the wrong spelling of your name, on the way to work or before an endless day of errands. It completes you.

But what you’ve never had is the epicurean Starbucks experience mixed with Italian grandeur. Its first ever retail location in Milan, Italy opened on 6 September and of course it’s a full-blown Reserve Roastery. How grande. It’s so posh, you’d probably never dare visit with the intention of working on your laptop (or poring over textbooks) for hours on a single drawn-out latte. They even serve cocktails and pizza. Read on.

Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Milan
Starbucks, how dare you make us swoon like this?

Here’s what you need to know

The building is a former post office
The 2,300sqm Starbucks is in the Poste building in Piazza Cordusio, Milan. It was built in 1901 and used as the Stock Exchange headquarters before it became a post office.

Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Milan
We will never wrap our heads around the beauty of this.

Read also: 9 of the most stunning churches in Italy

The first Starbucks in Italy
The Reserve Roastery a homecoming of sorts for the company, as founder Howard Schultz was inspired by Italian espresso culture all those years ago. There are only two other Roastery locations in the world at this time: Seattle, United States and Shanghai, China.

Starbucks Reserve Roastery Milan
Get ready for coffee science.

What’s inside?
It’s not a café. It’s a theatre. Starbucks wanted to bring a different coffee-drinking experience to Italy, the spiritual home of the espresso, so you won’t find your regular Frappuccino here. There’s a coffee bar offering a handcrafted menu of more than 115 beverages across different brewing techniques. The Roastery also lets you see the on-site coffee-roasting process live and buy beans by the gram.

Starbucks Reserve Roastery Milan
You get full view of the roasting process.

What will it serve?
Coffee, of course, and cocktails served to you by mixologists at the Arriviamo bar. There’s even pizza and other Italian wood-fire oven-baked breads by Princi Bakery. Also a first: an affogato station, with handmade custom ice-cream.

It’s not a competition, but this is undoubtedly the most beautiful Starbucks in the world – *sigh* Italy gets everything.

Starbucks Reserve Roastery Milan
You can drink coffee, buy coffee beans and even watch coffee beans get roasted.

Photo credit: Starbucks

Read also: No plastic straws at Starbucks? You better believe it

Andrea Tim

Andrea is a serial kopi peng drinker (for fun, not for the caffeine; coffee doesn't wake her up) and believer in keyboard shortcuts. She sees The Dress as blue and black, and hears both Yanny and Laurel. Make of that what you will.

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