Starbucks's Teahouse Ambitions for Its Teavana Chain

Starbucks, the company that reinvented the modern coffee shop, is turning its attention to another venue: the teahouse. Last year the 19,000-cafe giant acquired Teavana, a chain of mall stores that sell tea and teaware. On Oct. 24, Starbucks opened the first Teavana tea bar on New York’s Upper East Side. It plans to open 1,000 stores in North America within 10 years. “We have confidence and excitement and optimism about … the tea bar concept, not only in the U.S. and North America, but opportunities in other places around the globe,” says Cliff Burrows, Starbucks’s president for the Americas, Europe, Middle East, and Africa, and Teavana.