Starbucks Boston mug: Discovery Series

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

Starbucks Discovery Series Boston mug with a shamrock, a red lighthouse, a lobster and a columned building around the word BOSTON — Front view · numbered markers match the list below Show markers

Boston mug: BOSTON lettering with a shamrock, a red lighthouse that may be Boston Light, a portico like Quincy Market's, a lobster, a Boston cream pie, a river and bridge that may be the Charles and Longfellow, a NEWBURY ST sign and the Boston Public Library.

Series: Discovery Series
Place: Boston, Massachusetts, 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 keeper who drowned two years after Boston Light was lit

On 3 November 1718, George Worthylake, the first keeper of Boston Light, drowned with his wife, a daughter, a friend and an enslaved man named Shadwell ^[1]. Their small boat capsized as they rowed to Little Brewster. Worthylake had lit the tower two years earlier, at £50 a year ^[1]. A second keeper, Robert Sanders, took the job and drowned only a few days later ^[2]. Benjamin Franklin wrote a ballad about the drowning. According to Franklin, it sold wonderfully, the event being recent ^[3]. The tower fared no better in war: in June 1776, as the last British troops left Boston, they blew it up, and Massachusetts did not rebuild it until 1783 ^[4]. The red lighthouse at the left of the BOSTON lettering on the mug (3) may be Boston Light.

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

What's on the mug

1
BOSTON lettering
BOSTON is printed in yellow-green capitals across a dark green circle in the middle of the front.
2
Shamrock
A yellow-green three-leaf shamrock with red veins and a curled yellow-green stem sits on top of the green circle. The mug doesn't say what it stands for.
3
Red lighthouse, possibly Boston Light
A tall red tower with a gallery and lantern stands beside a small blue house with a red roof, left of the lettering; the same tower shows at the right edge of the side view. It may be Boston Light on Little Brewster Island, whose round stone tower was built 75 feet high in 1783 and raised to 89 feet in 1859, but the drawing is stylised and coloured to the mug's palette, so other New England lights could fit. The mug doesn't name it.^[4]
4
Columned market hall, resembling Quincy Market
A green building with a triangular pediment holding a round window, a portico of four columns and arched windows behind stands on red brick paving, beside a blue tree. It resembles the ends of Quincy Market, the granite market hall at Faneuil Hall Marketplace, whose porticoes have four Doric columns under a pediment with a circular window; the drawing leaves out the market's central dome. The mug doesn't name it.^[7]
5
Lobster
A large red lobster with open claws lies across the bottom of the green circle, with small blue touches on its claw tips, head and tail fan.
6
Baseball and glove
A yellow-green baseball with red stitching rests in a blue fielder's glove at the lower left of the front. The mug doesn't name a team.
7
Boston cream pie Side view
A slice of layered cake with a pale cream band in the middle and dark brown-red topping running down its sides sits on a blue cake stand, with a second slice flying up beside the conductor's baton. Cake layers, a cream filling and a chocolate top are what make a Boston cream pie, which Massachusetts law names its official dessert. The mug doesn't print the name.^[5]^[6]
8
Red-brick houses Side view
A row of red-brick houses with white windows, green mansard roofs and a tall green pointed tower stands along the top of the side, above the river. The mug doesn't name the street or the buildings.
9
Sailboat Side view
A sailboat with a red sail and a green hull sits at the lower right of the side, at the edge of the same blue river as the small boats.
10
River and bridge, possibly the Charles and the Longfellow Bridge Side view
Small boats cross a wide blue river with grassy, tree-lined banks; a long bridge with green towers on its piers crosses the far side in front of a low skyline. It may be the Charles River with the Longfellow Bridge, whose two central piers carry stone towers, but the drawing puts a tower on every pier and is too small to confirm the bridge. The mug doesn't name them.^[11]
11
NEWBURY ST sign Back view
A brown street sign reading NEWBURY ST hangs from a red lamp post topped with a blue globe lamp.
12
Orchestra conductor, perhaps a nod to the Boston Pops Back view
A conductor with blue hair, in a red tailcoat with a white shirt front and a dark bow tie, raises a baton over a music stand while green and blue notes float in the air. It may be a nod to the Boston Pops, whose Fourth of July concert is what the Hatch Shell on the Charles River Esplanade is best known for. The mug doesn't name the orchestra or the person.^[10]
13
Boston Public Library (McKim Building) Back view
A long two-storey building with a red roof has a row of arched windows along its upper floor and three blue arched doors in the middle of its ground floor, flanked by small square windows. That layout matches the Copley Square front of the Boston Public Library's McKim Building, which has 13 arched upper windows and a central entrance of three arched doors; the conductor's legs hide the right-hand end. The mug doesn't name it.^[8]^[9]
14
Round garden Back view
A round green plot is divided into wedge-shaped beds by white paths, with a small red object on a blue round base at its centre and small red shrubs around its edge. The mug doesn't name the place.
15
Green pot with spoon and clam shells
At the right of the front a tall green pot full of round green and blue pieces in something red stands on a blue plate, with a blue-handled red spoon above it and two red clam shells below. The mug doesn't name the dish.
16
Blue towers Back view
Behind the left end of the library stand blue towers with white window grids, one with a sloping top, and a blue frame of tall bars. The mug doesn't name them.
17
Coffee cup on the riverbank Side view
A white cup with a green round logo, like a Starbucks cup, stands among the trees on the near riverbank, beside a dark red spotted tree and two white bare-branched shapes.

The three photos together cover most of the outside of the mug. The area behind the handle is out of view.

Collector notes

Boston University, Cambridge, Cape Cod and Massachusetts also have Discovery Series mugs on our checklists; this one is lettered BOSTON.
The lobster and the lighthouse are on the front, the red-brick houses and the sailboat on the side, and the NEWBURY ST sign and the conductor on the back.

Before you buy

The photos show the front, one side and the back, and the area behind the handle is out of view, so check the listing for the rim and inside. Boston also appears in the Been There, You Are Here, Icon and Relief series; this one is the Discovery Series mug lettered BOSTON.

Other Boston mugs

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

Been There · Boston Been There · Christmas Boston Icon · Boston Relief · Boston You Are Here · Boston

More Discovery Series mugs from Massachusetts

Hidden Starbucks cup

Starbucks says a to-go cup is hidden in every Discovery Series design. On the side photo, a white to-go cup with a green dot sits on the dark red building at the lower left, next to a round green tree. Where the hidden cup is on other mugs