Futuristic Starbucks Roastery opens today in Shanghai

Is this Starbucks the eighth world wonder?

This is a big day, literally, for coffee lovers, as the world’s largest Starbucks opens its doors.

The circular state-of-the-art Starbucks Roastery in Shanghai is the “first fully immersive multi-sensory coffee experience in Asia”, according to the Seattle hot drinks giant.

An expansive 2,700-square-metre (30,000-square-foot), the two-story building employees 400 employees and can serve up to 550 customers at a time.

According to the press release, “China is the company’s fastest-growing market with more than 3,000 stores across 136 cities,” and in Shanghai alone, “Starbucks already has more than 600 stores - the largest number of stores in any city where Starbucks has a presence.”

In addition to coffee, customers can also visit many attractions, “including one of three coffee bars offering multiple brewing methods, explore specially-crafted teas at the 3-D printed tea bar, enjoy freshly baked Italian artisanal food by Princi, and marvel at the ceiling made of 10,000 handmade wooden hexagon-shaped tiles, inspired by the locking of an espresso shot on an espresso machine.”

Extravagant seems like an understatement.

Sounding more and more like a coffee-themed amusement park, customers can also use their phones to enhance their experience once they’ve gotten their caffeine fix - “All along the way, customers can point their mobile devices around the Roastery for even more moments of discovery as they immerse themselves in the augmented reality (AR) experience.”

The experience, which will be accessible through a custom-designed Roastery digital web-app platform, will allow customers to create their own personal Roastery discovery journeys - you even get prizes.

(Starbucks (Starbucks)

“Each step of the way, customers unlock a virtual badge and once all badges are earned, they receive a custom Roastery filter to commemorate the moment and share on social media.”

And consider your pumpkin spice latte forgotten - at what we’re calling the Starbucks of the future, “eight highly trained Chinese coffee roasters will be roasting unique, small-lot Reserve coffee which Starbucks sources from more than 30 countries around the world, including China’s Yunnan Province.”

Serving some of the rarest, small-lot coffees in the world using any one of six brewing methods, drinking the coffee at the Shanghai Roastery will be an experience all on its own.

And proving there is something for literally everyone, the new Roastery will also feature a menu of over 80 different items, including Princi pastries, pizzas, and bread.

The 15-hour flight from New York City to Shanghai seems like an excellent idea right now.