During a recent trip back to the Bay Area, I had a chance to visit a Starbucks Reserve Coffee Bar. Starbucks Reserve Bars offer premium, small batch coffees and was inspired by their Seattle Reserve Roastery. They have limited locations throughout the US, including eleven in California (unfortunately none yet in San Diego).
The bar is much bigger than the typical Starbucks store, with plenty of cozy seating to relax in. It was very quiet inside despite there being many customers.
The menu is filled with coffee drinks that you won’t find at your regular Starbucks, including tasting flights, ice cream floats, pour-overs and more.
We grabbed a seat at the long counter where you can watch the barista make your drinks. They had menu with all the drinks available (photos at the end of this post).
I wanted to try everything, but I knew that wouldn’t be possible in a single visit and we were short on time. I’ll have to be patient and make sure I come again to try more.
Hazelnut Bianco Latte | Classic Affogato
Our drinks arrived on a nice wooden tray. The hazelnut latte features espresso combined with hazelnut praline infused milk.
You could definitely taste the hazelnut flavor. I was slightly disappointed that there was no latte art but perhaps its the milk being used.
The classic affogato features two shots of espresso poured over vanilla ice cream.
Overall, we had an enjoyable first visit. The drinks do cost a little more, but you are also paying for the experience and ambiance. It was quite relaxing inside and the staff was very friendly. I’m definitely planning on future visits and I’ll update this post when I try more of the menu.
Menu:
Starbucks Reserve Coffee Bar
https://www.starbucksreserve.com/en-us/locations
(make sure to limit your search to the Reserve coffee bars because this location search also includes regular Starbucks that serve Reserve coffee)
Wow, the menu looks so promising. Too bad their normal locations don’t carry these types of drinks, lol. Next time you go up here again, hopefully you will have enough time to go through their menu (I would double each each time, but get too wired in the process).
I really want to work my way through the whole menu. I definitely plan on multiple visits next time I am visiting my parents and bringing some of my siblings along so we can try several drinks each time. =)
That’s a good strategy! It’s always better to go with more than one person, haha.