Starbucks Coffee Reserve: Enjoy a Coffee Experience Like No Other!

When in Manila, rare is something you must dare to try.

For “Spontaneous Saturdays”, I tagged along with some college buddies to the Starbucks Coffee Reserve located at Eight Forbes Town Road, Burgos Circle in Taguig.

The second Starbucks Coffee Reserve shop in the Philippines is located on the first floor of Eight Forbes Town Road in Taguig City.

From afar, this Starbucks coffee shop may look like its typical mother store. But coming a little closer to the entrance, you’ll know that you have come to a whole new sanctuary!

Starbucks Coffee Reserve carries a distinct brand of our favorite Starbucks Coffee. It boasts rare and unique coffee coming from exotic parts of the world. As of this post, you can choose from any of these four coffee variants: Sun-Dried Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, Finca Nuevo Mexico, Sumatra Blue Batak and Zambia Peaberry TerraNova Estate. You can also choose between hot or iced variants.

Ground coffee beans of the Starbucks Reserve Coffees are also available if you want it to keep you company during your morning rush.

On a normal day, I would get Finca Nuevo Mexico because orange-flavored coffee has never disappointed me. This time around, I picked Zambia Peaberry from the world-renowned coffee plantation TerraNova Estate in Zambia. It intrigued me the most because the barista described its flavor as “a hint of apple and vanilla”.

Internationally, Starbucks Coffee Reserve has presented to the world around twenty-four kinds of rare and exquisite coffee coming from the most exotic parts of the world! They have already brought four of these here for Filipinos to enjoy!

It was a good surprise for my friends and I when we were told that we could watch our cup of coffee being made— something we also don’t get to experience at our regular Starbucks Coffee shops.

The coffee was prepared by filtering ground coffee beans in a single cup cone. This method requires a lot of patience, but in turn, it can best preserve the flavor from the coffee beans.

Our barista, Lala, also shared that Zambia Peaberry is one of the last coffee crops to come from the TerraNova Estate. Unfortunately, TerraNova Estate, after farming coffee for 30 years, pulled out all their coffee and focused on wheat.

The demand for coffee has shifted from one that accompanies quiet early mornings to a drink that serves as a ‘pick-me-up’-er for city folks constantly keeping up with the fast-paced world. Eventually, prices for pure coffee dropped to compete with instant coffee-with-creamer until some well-celebrated coffee estates can no longer compete.

Lala also showed us the uniquely shaped coffee beans of the Zambia Peaberry Coffee. They were smaller and rounder than most coffee beans, yet peaberry coffee still promised intense flavor.

My Zambia Peaberry Coffee is done! As we waited for my friend’s Finca Nuevo Mexico to finish filtering, our barista passionately imparts a basic knowledge of coffee and some background on the coffee that we chose.

Finally sipping from my carefully prepared Zambia Peaberry Coffee, I felt the acid leave a trail on the sides of my tongue and a light apple and vanilla flavour at the back of my throat. It was a rare enjoyable moment for me; to add, the privilege of drinking rare coffee.

Fortunately, everybody else ordered a Finca Nuevo Mexico so I had the chance to taste it! It carried a stronger and heavier flavor than the Zambia Peaberry Coffee and lived up to the citrus flavor. As for the other two Starbucks Coffee Reserve variants, the barista likened the flavor of the Sumatra Blue Batak to mixed berries, while the Sun-Dried Ethiopia Yirgacheffe had the strongest coffee sting amongst the four.

My friend’s iced Finca Nuevo Mexico, and need I mention, the straw the four of us sipped from when trying it out, of course, I wiped it first being the person that I am haha.

For the folks in the North, you can grab this rare experience in the Starbucks Coffee Reserve Store in Tomas Morato. The workforce in Makati and Bonifacio Global City may expect three new branches brewing soon: Starbucks Reserve Keyland Centre (Makati near Makati Medical Center), Starbucks Reserve Central Square (BGC High Street) & Starbucks Reserve Signa (Corner Valero St. & Rufino St., Makati).

So, When In Manila and having all those deadlines met, get a celebratory coffee run! Do it not only for yourself, but also for the sake of appreciating the cup of coffee you’re having.

You wouldn’t want to realize one day, that you had a rare cup in your hands but just didn’t know it!