Starbucks Chile mug: Been There Series

By The Starbucks Cups team · Last checked 2026-11-15 · How we make these pages

Starbucks Been There Series Chile mug with Chile in red letters, mountains, a deer, a wine glass and penguins — Front view · numbered markers match the list below Show markers

The Chile Been There mug shows Chiloé-style stilt houses, jagged Patagonian-looking peaks with icebergs, a deer, penguins, a glass of red wine, copihue flowers and a scaly fruit.

Series: Been There Series
Place: Chile
Type: Mug
Released: Not confirmed
Capacity: 14 fl ozstandard mug size
SKU: Not confirmed

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The year Castro's governor ordered the stilt houses gone

In the 1930s, a governor's decree ordered every beach building on Calle Lillo in Castro, on the Chilean island of Chiloé, removed as "unhealthy" and "shameful" ^[9]. It was never enforced ^[10]. In 1935 the town fined owners who had not pulled down the houses it judged unsanitary ^[11]. Then a fire in 1936 destroyed every building on the street, according to a PORTUS Online history of the port ^[12]. The new construction rules cancelled all the sea concessions, and permits to build on Lillo were refused ^[13]. By the 1950s an estimated third of the town's urban population lived in the beach districts ^[14]. The houses on stilts outlasted all of it. In 2022 Chile declared Castro's historic centre a national monument, and the decree names the stilt houses of Gamboa and Pedro Montt as part of what gives Chiloé its identity ^[15]. The stilt houses on the Chile mug (2) may be that same kind of house.

The mug does not label its drawings, so connecting this one to the story is our reading.

What's on the mug

1
Lettering
"Chile" in dark red letters with a hatched, pencil-shaded texture, set across the upper front. The only printed word on the visible side.
2
Palafito stilt houses
A cluster of small wooden-looking houses with pitched roofs stands on tall thin legs above a pale shoreline, in cream, tan and two red-painted walls. The stilt houses match the palafitos of Chiloé, a style the sources tie to Castro. A taller shape at the top edge is cut off by the handle. The mug doesn't name the place.^[1]^[2]
3
Jagged peaks, possibly Torres del Paine
Pale olive, brown-outlined pyramid-shaped peaks with sharp points fill the middle of the design, with patches of red-orange behind and between them. The pointed peaks, with water and ice in front, may be meant as the Torres del Paine massif in Patagonia, but the art is stylised and other jagged ranges would also fit. The mug doesn't name it.^[5]^[6]
4
Pale deer, possibly a huemul
A pale cream deer with a dark patch on its muzzle and antlers that are each a single beam with one short fork, stands at the left edge, facing right. It may be a huemul (South Andean deer), the deer on Chile's coat of arms, though the drawing is too simple to settle the species. The mug doesn't name it.^[4]
5
Glass of red wine
A stemmed glass about two-thirds full of dark red wine stands to the right of the mountains. It may stand for Chilean wine, since Chile is a large wine exporter. The mug doesn't say.^[8]
6
Two penguins
Two penguins stand on a tan shoreline at the lower right: a tall, sleek one with a dark red head and a long, straight beak, and a smaller one beside it. The drawing does not show which species they are. The mug doesn't name them.
7
Scaly fruit with a cut half
A tan, egg-shaped fruit covered in overlapping rounded scales sits at the lower left on a red patch, next to a halved fruit with dark seeds in pale flesh. It looks like a chirimoya (cherimoya), whose skin has overlapping scales and whose flesh holds black seeds. The mug doesn't name it.^[7]
8
Shellfish in a shell
A ridged shell open to show a cream filling with a red-orange patch, drawn below the first letter of the name. It may be a scallop or similar shellfish served in its shell. The mug doesn't name the dish.
9
Copihue (Chilean bellflower)
Red bell-shaped flowers hang from thin stems down the far left edge, with a tan leaf marked in red beside the first letter. The hanging red bells match the copihue (Lapageria rosea), the national flower of Chile. The mug doesn't name it.^[3]
10
Citrus slice
A small wedge with a red outline and radiating segments sits between the flowers and the shell. It is a citrus slice, probably lemon, drawn with the shellfish. The mug doesn't name it.
11
Sun
A small sun with a red centre and long thin rays, drawn in brown lines above the stilt houses.
12
Icebergs
Two small white, angular ice blocks float in pale water in front of the mountains, outlined in brown. They may relate to the glacier icebergs of Patagonia; the drawing does not say where.
13
Pale tree
A tall, narrow, leafy tree drawn in pale cream and grey lines stands on a small grey-brown bank to the right of the wine glass. The species cannot be told from the drawing.
14
Shore birds
Two tiny dark birds sit on the sand below the stilt houses. They are too small to identify.
15
Distant ridge and beach
Low, pale hills with white tops lie behind a tan beach with wave lines and small pebbles, between the penguins and the icebergs. No landmark can be named.

The photo shows one side of the mug. The back and the area behind the handle are out of view, so drawings there are not described.

Collector notes

The inside is red-orange and the outside art uses reds and tans on white, so the colours alone separate this mug from the green Discovery Series Chile mug.
The mountains fill the middle of the front, while the stilt houses sit above the handle and the penguin at the lower right, so a photo from the left misses both.
The part of the wrap behind the mug (away from the front shown) is in no photo.

Before you buy

The photo shows one side of the mug, so the back and the area behind the handle are not shown. The inside is red-orange and the art is red and tan on white, which sets this Been There mug apart from the green Discovery Series Chile mug.