On January 12, 2019, Starbucks celebrates coffee’s journey from bean to cup with the opening of its largest destination in Southeast Asia – Starbucks Dewata Coffee Sanctuary.
The one-of-a-kind Coffee Sanctuary showcases Starbucks Indonesia’s coffee leadership in partnership with licensee PT Sari Coffee Indonesia, constructing on 16 years of innovation in design, customer support and community impact.
The store pays tribute to the necessary role that Indonesia, the fourth largest Arabica coffee growing region on this planet, plays in providing Starbucks customers with the very best quality coffees, including the favored single origin coffee from Sumatra.
Sumatra coffee has been a Starbucks staple since 1971.
“We started sourcing Indonesian coffee over forty years ago and have always been struck by the sense of community and attention to the coffee journey at every step,” said Kevin Johnson, CEO of Starbucks Coffee Company.
“Starbucks Dewata Coffee Sanctuary reinforces our passion for the coffee journey, our ongoing commitment to Indonesia’s wealthy coffee culture and our tireless pursuit of fostering moments of connection between our partners and customers.
Coffee Sanctuary is the tenth Starbucks Reserve Bar store in Indonesia and one among 185 stores worldwide, nearly all of that are in Asia. This is Starbucks at its best, and we’re proud to open the doors to this unique experience in one among Southeast Asia’s most dynamic markets.”
Designed as a coffee sanctuary, the expansive 20,000-square-foot store beautifully highlights local crafts and culture together with premium coffee on this one-of-a-kind coffee experience, something of an “origin-focused version” of a roastery, stimulating all five senses.
Visitors walk through an Arabica coffee farm, try their hand at separating and washing coffee beans in the course of the harvest season, dry and rake green coffee beans, visit budding seedlings within the nursery, explore the locally inspired shop design featuring traditional Balinese crafts and Indonesian art, and revel in with over 100 handcrafted drinks, food and Dewata-exclusive goods, including Lavender Latte.
“Bali enjoys an enviable reputation as one of Asia’s most popular travel destinations, and Indonesia is one of the most extraordinary coffee origin regions, so we are thrilled to invite customers here to ignite their senses and take a coffee journey from seed to cup in this unique destination Coffee Sanctuary,” said Anthony Cottan, director of Starbucks Indonesia at PT Sari Coffee Indonesia Limited.
“We are very pleased to further strengthen the long-standing relationship between Starbucks and PT Sari Coffee Indonesia with this truly one-of-a-kind Starbucks store, inspired by and filled with the best examples of Indonesian art, design and craftsmanship.”
A sensual journey through coffee
Located in Bali’s emerging premium retail district on Sunset Road, Coffee Sanctuary offers a curated series of interactive experiences.
As customers enter, they might be greeted on the front desk by a concierge after which shown around a 1,000-square-foot working coffee tree plantation, the scale of a typical Indonesian farm.
Customers will proceed their journey through contemporary Balinese landscapes, passing coffee plantations and a depulping station, before trying their hand at washing, drying and raking green coffee beans. Inside, the spacious Reserve Bar offers customers an intimate atmosphere and small-batch tasting of Starbucks Reserve coffees, while the fundamental bar offers core Starbucks beverages.
On the second floor there may be a seedling nursery, a greenhouse covered with a glass panel, providing an outside experience. Here, customers can touch the primary stages of the journey from seed to cup, and deepen their knowledge of the art of caring for coffee trees with an area Balinese farmer.
In the adjoining tasting room, customers’ taste buds will come alive as they enjoy coffee the best way quality coffee professionals do, with no filter – just coffee and water – to bring out the flavors that distinguish each cup.
Those in search of more can benefit from the interactive video wall and take heed to how coffee is planted, processed, roasted, transported and brewed right into a delicious cup of espresso.
On the second floor, a dedicated media room features two synchronized video partitions that showcase the work of the Starbucks Farmer Support Center (FSC) in Sumatra and agronomist Dr. Surip Mawardi’s work with Indonesian coffee growers.
Connecting with coffee through an area project
The sanctuary was designed as a tribute to Indonesia’s wealthy coffee culture and heritage. The expansive interior of the shop was inspired by traditional Balinese houses with flowing, connected rooms that make it easy to explore latest spaces.
The interior of the shop was designed in collaboration with local craftsmen and artists with one goal: to inform the story of coffee in Indonesia. The whole thing is enlivened by a wood carving depicting the local culture and architecture of the country’s six coffee-growing regions. A two-story mural within the courtyard pays tribute to local farmers who rigorously nurture and protect beans throughout their journey to Starbucks.
On the bottom floor, Starbucks partners (employees) welcome customers to the 13-meter-high teak Reserve bar, drawing inspiration from Bali’s terraced rural landscapes, where customers can taste the rarest Starbucks coffees.
On the opposite side of the shop, the attention is drawn to a living wall full of plants from the region, placed behind the fundamental bar, designed to remind customers of Bali’s ocean waves, that are recreated on the layered red brick exterior facade.
Starbucks’ commitment to coffee communities
Starbucks is committed to working with farmers in Indonesia to ethically and sustainably bring high-quality Indonesian coffee to the world, and today the corporate is the most important buyer of Indonesian coffee Arabica Coffee.
In 2015, Starbucks opened a Farmer Support Center in Berastagi, North Sumatra, where Starbucks agronomists, led by Dr. Mawardi, conduct research to develop disease-resistant coffee varieties in an effort to make coffee the world’s first sustainable agricultural product through the Sustainable Coffee Challenge.
Sumatra FSC is one among nine world wide, including China, that supply open-source agronomic assistance and support to regional coffee growers to enhance the productivity and sustainability of their coffee trees.
To date, Starbucks Indonesia and Sumatra FSC have distributed over 330,000 coffee seedlings together with technical assistance to smallholder farmers. Through local initiatives to support the replanting of coffee trees, Starbucks plans to donate 100,000 seedlings annually in partnership with FSC.
Since 2006, the Starbucks Foundation has provided over $4 million to support farming communities and promote education, water, sanitation and health (WASH) programs throughout Indonesia. In 2018
The Foundation has provided grants to Lutheran World Relief to support women-led community health and hygiene programs for two,100 households in Sumatran coffee-producing villages over the following three years, and to CARE to support the economic empowerment of girls tea staff and community WASH programs in West Java for the following two years.
Today, Starbucks Indonesia delivers the Starbucks Experience in 370 stores, where nearly 4,500 partners proudly wear the green apron. Dewata Coffee Sanctuary is the primary Starbucks Reserve Bar in Bali and the tenth in Indonesia, as Starbucks continues to raise customers’ coffee journeys across the market.
Source: Starbucks official website
