Starbucks Alabama mug: Discovery Series

By The Starbucks Cups team · Last checked 2026-11-14 · How we make these pages

Starbucks Discovery Series Alabama mug with guitars, red camellias, red berries, a red propeller plane and a waterfall around the word ALABAMA — Front view · numbered markers match the list below Show markers

The Alabama mug shows a red propeller plane, camellias, blackberries, a banjo and guitar, a waterfall with a shrimp, an arch bridge, a domed building that resembles the State Capitol, peanuts, a football helmet on a rock, and a beach scene with a rocket.

Series: Discovery Series
Place: Alabama, USA
Type: Mug
Released: Not confirmed
Capacity: 14 fl ozStarbucks's Discovery Series launch story calls it the 14-ounce ceramic mug
SKU: Not confirmed

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The First Lady who asked for a ride at Tuskegee

In late March 1941, Eleanor Roosevelt toured a flight-training field at Tuskegee, Alabama, and asked for a ride ^[3]. Her pilot was the school's chief flight instructor, Charles Alfred Anderson, a Black man in a country where many people doubted that Black men could fly ^[8]. Her security men objected. According to the MIT Black History Project, she went up with him anyway and insisted the flight be photographed ^[4]. The picture of the two of them in a Piper Cub became famous, and she wrote about the flight in a widely published column ^[5]. Soon after her visit, the Rosenwald Fund put up $175,000, and construction of Moton Field, where the new cadets would train, quickly started ^[6]^[7]. The red plane on the Alabama mug (5) may be a plane like the ones those pilots flew.

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

What's on the mug

1
Electric guitar
A blue electric guitar with a hollow-looking body and a long neck angles across the top left, with three blue music notes floating above it. The mug doesn't say which guitar or why it is here.
2
Banjo
A banjo with a round pale-blue head and a red rim hangs below the guitar, its neck pointing up and to the left. It shows again at the right edge of the Side photo, next to the guitar. The mug doesn't say what it stands for.
3
Berries, probably blackberries
A cluster of red berries made of small round beads hangs above the lettering, with blue-green leaves behind. It looks like a blackberry drawn in red, and Alabama's official state fruit is the blackberry. The mug doesn't name it.^[1]
4
Camellias
Two large red flowers with layered petals, one with a pale, dark-dotted cluster of stamens in the centre, sit at the lower left among pale blue-green leaves. They look like camellias, which became Alabama's state flower in 1959. The same flowers show at the right of the Side photo. The mug doesn't name them.^[1]
5
Red propeller plane (resembles a P-51 Mustang)
A red single-engine plane banks across the top right, with a red nose and spinner, a bubble canopy, pale-green wings with red stripes, and white stars in circles on the wing and body. Blue lines trail behind it. The shape resembles a P-51 Mustang, which the National Park Service's Tuskegee Airmen site calls one of the most beloved and recognized airplanes of World War II; the Tuskegee Airmen trained in Alabama. The mug doesn't name the aircraft.^[2]
6
Arch bridge
A single thin blue arch rises over the bottom of the green circle. Its feet drop well below the flat deck, which crosses the arch about halfway up on a pale scalloped band, with orange vertical hangers between arch and deck; the deck runs on toward the cliff. The arch is one plain band with no lattice bracing. The mug doesn't say which bridge it is, or whether it is a real one.
7
Waterfall with a shrimp
A waterfall in blue and white wavy lines drops from the cliff into a foamy pool at the lower right, with a second thinner stream beside it. A red creature with long feelers and a fanned tail sits in the water, which looks like a shrimp; Alabama's official state crustacean is the brown shrimp. The mug doesn't name the waterfall or the shrimp.^[1]
8
Lettering
ALABAMA in pale green capitals over a dark green circle; the last letters fade toward the plane.
9
Beach ball Back view
A red, white and blue beach ball hangs in mid-air above a player in a red cap and red shorts who is reaching up to hit it. The whole back is one beach scene with surf along the top, which may stand for Alabama's coast: the state's lowest point is its boundary with the Gulf of Mexico. The mug doesn't name a beach.^[1]
10
Rocket (may nod to Huntsville) Back view
A tall, slim red rocket with black bands between its stacked sections, a pale band near the top, a needle tip and fins at the base stands upright at the right, its base on a strip of dark-lined sea above the surf, with a crescent moon and small stars in the sky. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville developed the Saturn rockets used for the Apollo moon missions, so this may be a nod to Alabama's space work, but the mug doesn't name the rocket.^[9]^[11]
11
Palm trees Back view
Palm trees frame the beach: a small one at the far left, and a tall one with a red-ringed trunk and dark-green and pale fronds right of centre.
12
Sandcastle Back view
A child in a wide sun hat kneels in the sand beside a red bucket and a small shovel, building a sandcastle with dark towers.
13
Rainbow Back view
A striped arc in red, pale and green-grey bands curves over blue-white waves at the right edge, cut off by the curve of the mug. The same arc continues at the left of the Side photo, under a small cloud. The mug doesn't say what it stands for.
14
STARBUCKS wordmark Back view
The STARBUCKS wordmark runs up the side next to the handle.
15
Football Side view
A red football with white laces arcs through the air at the upper left, with blue motion lines behind it.
16
Football helmet Side view
A red football helmet with a pale grey-blue face mask over a dark opening sits tipped forward on the red top of the rock. The mug doesn't name a team.
17
Layered rock with a red cap Side view
A stack of pale blue, layered rock widens into a flat red cap like a pedestal, under the helmet, with a wide red band curving across its base. The mug doesn't say which rock or place this is.
18
Domed building (resembles the Alabama State Capitol) Side view
A red building with tall white-trimmed windows stands at the lower left: a columned centre with a flat top and no pediment, a small square clock box with a pointed gable set over it in front of a red dome, a lantern and spire on the dome, and a lower wing with its own row of columns at each side. That layout resembles the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, whose clock over the portico appears as a square white box crowned with a gabled roof and whose two side wings each have a columned entrance portico. The mug draws it in its red palette and doesn't name it, so this is our reading.^[12]
19
Peanuts Side view
Two blue-grey peanut shells with a textured net pattern and two red kernels lie at the bottom, between the building and the flowers. Peanuts are a southern Alabama crop; the Encyclopedia of Alabama says they are farmed on about 160,000 acres there. The mug doesn't say what they stand for.^[10]
20
Man in red shirt Back view
A bearded man in a red shirt and red cap stands on the beach holding a cup, with a hand on his hip.
21
Beach umbrella and striped chair Back view
A grey-blue beach umbrella stands over a striped lounge chair, with a small red cooler beside it.
22
Dark grey rounded shapes Back view
A large dark grey rounded shape with a pale underside and two smaller dark balls sit on the red sand at the right edge, partly cut off by the curve of the mug. We can't tell what they are; they could be rocks or an animal.
23
White block with a green dot Back view
A small white block with a green dot on it sits in the surf at the foot of the rocket. We can't tell what it is.
24
Layered cliff and trees
A pale green cliff face with layered rock sits left of the waterfall, topped by red rock, and blue pine-like trees stand on the green hill above the falls. The mug doesn't name the place.

The front, side and back photos together cover the whole mug except the area right behind the handle.

Collector notes

Alabama is also listed in the Been There and You Are Here series on our checklists, so check the series in the listing title before you pay.
The seller used a bright teal backdrop, which makes the pale lettering easy to read here but is not part of the mug.

Before you buy

Alabama also appears in the Been There and You Are Here series, so check the series in the listing title before you pay. This Discovery Series mug holds 14 fl oz. Our front, side and back photos cover everything except the area right behind the handle.

Other Alabama mugs

Different series, different mugs. Check the series name before you buy.

Been There · Alabama You Are Here · Alabama

More Discovery Series mugs from Alabama

Starbucks Auburn University mug

Hidden Starbucks cup

Starbucks says a to-go cup is hidden in every Discovery Series design. On the back of the mug, a white to-go cup with a green dot sits near the rocket. Where the hidden cup is on other mugs