Starbucks premium opens in Monterrey

Starbucks opened Reserve, its most exclusive version in the Point Valley Town Center, in San Pedro Garza García, in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. Reserve Bar is the deluxe version of Starbucks: minimalist sobriety in its outlets and a careful choice of grains to prepare craft drinks, in presses and siphons, in addition to its impeccable Italian machines. This time, the exclusive house opened its doors in Monterrey, Nuevo León.

This concept elevates the coffee experience by offering the most exotic and limited production varieties of the brand. "At an international level, we have our experts who go around the world looking for those high-quality coffees and very special characteristics", says José Luis Portela, CEO of Starbucks Mexico. Sometimes, these coffees are produced in very small lots and the production is not enough to offer them in the 30,000 Starbucks stores in the world, so they are taken exclusively to Reserve Bar stores.

This Thursday, the brand inaugurated the third store of this concept in Latin America, in the Town Center Point Valle, in San Pedro Garza García, the first was open to the public in 2017, in Chile, and the second in 2018, in the City from Mexico. Portela says that to date there are around 100 Reserve Bar stores in the world, located in the United States, Mexico, Chile, and Asian countries. The overall goal is that this concept grows to 20% of the total stores by 2021.

Starbucks Reserve Bar has more than 40 varieties of coffee. According to Portela, the new store in Monterrey will offer its visitors up to seven different types of reserve coffee, from places such as the Peruvian Amazon, Ecuador, or Kenya. The word Bar refers to the 'immersive' bar, which, unlike that found in traditional stores of the brand, offers the customer space for interaction with the barista and with the five different methods of coffee preparation offered.

The protagonist is the Siphon, whose method of vacuum filtration offers an incredible display of science while producing a cup of delicate, aromatic, and unique coffee. The second method is the Black Eagle, a manual espresso machine that gives baristas complete freedom to elevate their art and dexterity. The third is the Nitro Cold Brew, which injects nitrogen into its well-known Cold Brew to give it a silky and appetizing texture. The store also has the traditional methods of the coffee press.

The 17 partners of this store wear the distinctive Starbucks black apron, which means that they have not only been trained as baristas but also as coffee masters. The history of the brand in the state began 13 years ago, almost since its arrival in Mexico. Today it operates 55 stores in the region and brings together about 600 employees. For Alsea, a Mexican company that operates the Starbucks brand in Mexico, the cafeterias segment accounts for 26% of its sales and gathers 16% of its employees.