Last week I came home with a new pair of Starbucks’ mugs, as apparently I often do. What is it about Starbucks mugs and coffee cups and water bottles? Several times a year I can’t resist buying another 1, 2, or even 3 cups if the design is particularly attractive to me.
This is sort of odd because I don’t buy a lot of random things. Just Starbucks cups. Every time I go to a new location I find myself checking the shelves to see what’s new. Downtown Seattle is particularly hot hunting ground – I’ve seen some great designs there that never make it to Canada.
I’m particularly partial to the mugs that look and feel handmade, with a little slumped clay thing happening, perhaps a groove or two from the pottter’s wheel, possibly a thumb-printed rim like the red one, above. Lately I’ve been attracted to the pure white ceramic look. I’ve bought a couple of pairs – one set with wide rims and rich yellow interiors, another set inwardly-curved with grass-green interiors, called the “Siren” mug (above, right).
My favourite Starbucks cups have to be my retro snowman sets (left) with teacups on matching oval plates. These are my first choice for serving tea to our clients on dark rainy winter days, although to be truly effective they require cookies, and I try not to buy cookies because – well, you know exactly why not.
The funny thing is that I don’t drink coffee in them, although Sr. Tech does. When he started working with Kits Media, Sr. Tech was quite scornful of Starbucks coffee. A couple of years later, he doesn’t really enjoy anything else. For Christmas I got him a great big “French Roast” Starbucks mug to celebrate all the pounds of French Roast he goes through.
Obviously I’ve missed out on a lot of great cups. Wikibooks offers a guide to city-themed mugs that have been issued in dozens of countries
At Fred Orange you can trade or swap city mugs with collectors all over the world. People like Renee from Indianapolis with 1520 mugs, or Marcel from Amsterdam with 1218. Some of the mugs are rare and valuable. The record price paid on eBay for a 1994 edition of the Minneapolis/St.Paul Starbucks’ mug was $2,020.00.
I definitely think I’m on the right track here. The $8.95 Hawaiian Starbucks mug I bought in Honolulu for Jr. Tech last month is already $25.95 on eBay. Go figure.
How about you? Link to our Facebook post on Starbuck’s mugs and send me a photo of your own favourite!
You have a very pretty collection of mugs! I’ve linked to it on my Squidoo page about Starbucks Mugs.