Reserve Roastery will look pretty in pink, whether you’re looking at the building, your glass, or your plate.

Starbucks Japan is always eager to raise a glass/coffee mug to the local culture, and the Starbucks Reserve Roastery Tokyo, their flagship branch in the capital, offers an especially apt opportunity to do so. The multi-story coffeehouse just so happens to be located next to the Megurogawa River, in a tree-lined stretch that’s one of the city’s most popular spots for hanami, or cherry blossom viewing.

So even though we’ve still got a few weeks before the cherry blossoms start to bloom, the Reserve Roastery Tokyo is ready to get sakura season started early with a variety of new art, beverage, and dessert enticements making their debuts this month.

The visual appeal starts before you even enter the building, with a Yozakura (“Nighttime Sakura”) Light-up bathing the upper exterior in a cherry blossom-pink once the sun goes down on February 15, which will also be the debut date for two new sakura-themed beverages with uniquely Japanese tastes.

For coffee lovers, there’s the Sakura Cream Latte, an espresso enhanced with powdered anko (sweet red beans), an archetypal Japanese dessert ingredient, as well a dash of gentle cinnamon and soy milk. This 1,050-yen (US$7.25) drink will be offered at the Roastery’s first-floor main bar.

Make your way up to the Roastery’s third-floor Arriviamo bar, which serves alcoholic beverages, and there’s a seasonal cocktail waiting for you. The 2,200-yen Spring Sakura Alure starts with a base of Sakura Alure Japanese green tea to which sparkling wine is added, along with strawberry syrup and rose liqueur for a mix of fizzy, fruity, and floral enhancements.

If you want something to munch on as you sip, the in-Roastery Italian-style bakery Princi has a lineup of sakura sweets which also go on sale February 15. 530 yen will get you either a sakura cornetto (a cream-filled croissant-like pastry) or sakura maritozzo cream bun, or you can dig a little deeper in your pockets for the 925-yen sakura torta pie or 755-yen raspberry and cherry cake, which sneaks in with the others thanks to its sakura-similar coloring.

Since all of this sakura food and beverage fun is starting before the trees outside the Roastery will begin blooming, on the fourth floor Starbucks is adding a Sakura Bottle Tower art installation, with what looks like might be preserved sakura tree branches, so that you can do a little indoor cherry blossom viewing.

Again, all of this kicks off on February 15, with the Yozakura Light-up and Sakura Bottle Tower viewable until April 14, the sakura baked goods scheduled to be available through April 11, and the sakura drinks and pink cake until May 9. And as for the trees outside along the river, Tokyo is expected to see its first cherry blossoms opening on March 20.

Related: Starbucks Reserve Roastery Tokyo official website
Source, images: PR Times
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