Starbucks is now an ‘It’ place to have coffee in India. Of course, there is still the debate between coffee and tea. But, barring a few, the tea lounges are usually high-end and are mostly located in star hotels or are stand-alone tea bars. And now Starbucks has upped its game in India by launching its first-ever 5200 sq ft Reserve Store in Mumbai’s Fort area.
In India, the Starbucks Coffee Company operates in tandem with Tata Consumer Products Ltd for a decade now. Hence, not surprisingly, the company now has over 300 outlets and serves approximately 3.3 lakh customers in India every week.
The Reserve Store has a huge mural of the mermaid done up by Sonal Vasave and Makarand Narkar, while architect-artist Ankon Mitra, created a sculpture befitting the space. Henceforth, coffee lovers will have two bars, one with regular drinks from Starbucks and the other using unique brewing methods like pour-over, Chemex, siphon, and Nitro Cold Brew among others.
While Starbucks is changing its operational style abroad, in India, they are projecting it as a high-end coffee place. As a part of their strategy, they are also penetrating tier-2 markets, while positioning it as a ‘place to hang out’ for good coffee and a place to be seen.
As for Reserve, it is mainly targeted at coffee lovers, who travel the world and experience the various nuances of international flavors.
