Starbucks is planning to open about 1,550 net new stores in fiscal 2014 and 1,600 net new stores in 2015, including testing new types of establishments like tasting rooms for specialty "Reserve coffees" and express stores for urban areas, Forbes reports.

According to Seattlepi.com, Starbucks is planning to launch "a one-of-a-kind, interactive Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room dedicated to roasting, coffee education and increased availability of their fast-growing, highly successful small-lot Starbucks Reserve coffees" in December, a plan that has been in development for over two years.

"Everything we have created and learned about coffee has led us to this moment," Starbucks Commander Howard Schultz said in a press release. "The Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting room is a multi-sensory experience that will transform the future of specialty coffee."

The specialty coffees, which started a decade ago with "Black Apron Exclusives," have led Starbucks to roll out the Reserve brand of small-batch arabica coffees in 2010. The new Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room will "serve as homage to the rich history of specialty coffee," the company said, Seattlepi.com reports.

It will also allow Starbucks to double its small-batch roasting capacity and offer Starbucks Reserve coffee at 1,500 stores worldwide by the end of the 2015 fiscal year, up from 800 now. This includes at least 100 stores "designed to highlight these rare coffees exclusively."

According to Forbes, "the move comes as retailers... struggle with troublesome declines in store traffic and same-store sales as consumer spending habits shift rapidly."

Starbucks also announced that it plans to test small express stores, with "a concentrated set of beverage and food offerings" while will feature mobile ordering. Starbucks plans to open the first of these early next year in New York.

This move is due to what Starbucks calls an "increase in urbanization and decentralization of retail," Forbes reports.

Do you think these new retail formats will improve Starbucks sales? Would you be willing to check out the Tasting Room? Let us know in the comments section below!