Starbucks to Launch Tea-Only Store

Starbucks to Launch Tea-Only Café - as part of the news series by GeoBeats.

Starbucks, known internationally for their coffee and blended coffee drinks, is now opening a new café in Seattle where only tea will be served. After buying out Tazo Tea Company for 8 point one million dollars in 1999, Starbucks has turned Tazo into an extremely successful enterprise, which sees annual sales of almost one and a half billion dollars. The new store will feature 80 different kinds of tea for customers to choose from, along with a blending station in the store for people to create their own combinations of Tazo teas. Regarding their goals for the store, Tazo Vice President Charlie Cain said, "We want to raise customer expectations for tea the same way Starbucks did for coffee."

Starbucks got their start in Seattle in 1971 as a specialty coffee store, not a café. They have since become the largest coffee chain in the world, with stores in over 50 countries. The New York Times reported “As of October 2, 2011, the Company operated 9,031 stores and 4,776 licensed stores,” creating a revenue of over 8 billion dollars.