Having lived in the pacific northwest for the past 10 years, I have learned to love Starbucks! It is now my coffee of choice (so I’m lucky that there is practically one on every block). When Starbucks opened their first Roastery location in Seattle at the end of 2014, it wasn’t long before I went to check it out. I was really impressed. They had exclusive merch and specialty drinks, plus the design of the space was stunning as well. Since I loved my first Roastery experience all those years ago, I knew I would have to visit the Tokyo location on my next trip. 

The Tokyo location opened in February 2019. It is strategically placed along the Meguro River which is a cherry blossom viewing hot spot. I imagine it is nearly impossible to drink your fancy beverages on one of the outdoor verandas during sakura season. Luckily I was not there while they were in bloom (although it would be a stunning view) and since I visited pretty early in the day, there were very few people around. This Roastery is the fifth location that has opened. It has four floors which covers nearly 32,000 square feet! Starbucks collaborated with the Japanese architect Kengo Kuma to design the building from the ground up. The outside is covered in light wood and inside it features a giant copper bean cask towers up to the ceiling, surrounded by floating metal cherry blossoms in honor of the store’s location. There is a floor dedicated to coffee, one for tea, one for cocktails, and also includes an Italian bakery.

The first drink I had was the Cascara Lemon Sour, which is cold brew, shaken with maple syrup and fresh lemon juice, garnished with lemon peel, cherry, and cascara sugar. I was prepared for this drink to be disgusting because I wasn’t sure how maple syrup and lemon juice could go with coffee, but it was actually nice. It wasn’t something I would want to drink everyday, but it was a unique and tasty flavor combo.

The second drink I had was from the Teavana floor and it was the Golden-Sky Black Tea Latte, which was lightly sweetened hot black tea with honey, turmeric, and milk, then topped with a giant ball of turmeric cotton candy! I’ll be honest, I figured this would be tasty since I like both black tea and turmeric lattes, but the cotton candy was the real surprise. In typical Japanese style, it was served with chopsticks. It seemed odd at first, but after you eat cotton candy with chopsticks, I don’t think you’ll ever go back to using your fingers. I mean after all, I am a classy, civilized lady not a sticky child runny around the carnival!

(Sidenote: This makes me think I should try out those little plastic finger gloves they give you to eat chicken wings too—keep it classy!)