Since we’re talking about subjects that you can talk with a friend over a cup of coffee, I would like to share to you my small collection of Starbucks Coffee city mugs.
These collectible items first appeared on shelves in 1994 and since then, there are a lot of different styles or editions that have been or are being produced.
I started my collection in January of 2006 during my two-week business trip in Shanghai, PROC. Now, I have 15 of them: for the USA cities, I have Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Orlando, Pike Place, Vancouver and Washington, DC; for cities from other countries, I have Athens, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Mexico, Paris, Scotland and Vienna. Most of these came from my aunt who travels frequently, and from friends who gave them as pasalubongs.
Of these mugs, my favorite is the one Beijing. This was given to me by a friend. This mug was a décor in her office area but gave it to me when she learned that I collect these things. I like this mug because of its very Chinese oriental style, shown below. Compare it with the ones from Paris and Vienna, also shown below.
As you can see, you can associate the Beijing mug with China right away, with its red and yellow background and dragon illustrations.
Of course, the collection wouldn’t be a collection without the Pike Place mug. The original Starbucks opened in PikePlace Market in Seattle in 1979.
[More Trivia] – Starbucks founders Jerry Baldwin (English teacher), Zev Siegel (history teacher), and Gordon Bowker (writer) got the name of their company from an old mining camp in the Cascades, called Starbo. The name Starbo led Bowker to think of the first mate in Starbuck, Captain Ahab’s first mate in the book Moby-Dick. Incidentally, the ship was named Pequod.
Also, the image in the Starbucks logo is that of a “twin-tailed siren” (from Greek mythology). The vintage logo showed the siren’s bare breasts and has sparked some controversy.
Links
http://home.inter.net/mjm/mugs.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starbucks_City_Mug
http://www.groovydude.net/starbucks-collectibles-history-trivia
http://restaurants.about.com/b/2008/03/15/some-weekend-trivia-how-starbucks-got-its-name.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starbucks
For comments, suggestions and requests, you can contact me at Eyes.X.Only@gmail.com