Starbucks Brooklyn mug: Discovery Series

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

Starbucks Discovery Series Brooklyn mug with a pizza, Ferris wheel, roller coaster and trolley around the word BROOKLYN — Front view · numbered markers match the list below Show markers

The Brooklyn mug pairs Coney Island (the Wonder Wheel, the red Parachute Jump tower, a roller coaster, people on the sand) with the red torii and arched bridge of Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Japanese garden, a pizza and a green trolley.

Series: Discovery Series
Place: Brooklyn, New York, 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 night the Parachute Jump stuck, and business boomed

On the night of 11 July 1939, thousands of people gathered at the Parachute Jump in the New York World's Fair amusement zone ^[1]. One of its parachutes had jammed in mid-air with a man and a woman aboard, more than 100 feet up ^[2]. They hung there for over five hours ^[3]. The next day's headline in The New York Times said the device was booming, and the Rathbornes took the jump again ^[4]. After the fair ended, the Tilyou family bought the tower and moved it to Steeplechase Park at Coney Island in 1941, according to the city Parks Department ^[5]^[6]. Riders sat two to a parachute; a cable lifted them to the top, then dropped them ^[7]. In 1958 an 11-year-old who had found most of the park's rides too babyish talked her father into the jump ^[8]. Halfway down they stuck for an hour and a half ^[9]. The orange tower on the Brooklyn mug (5) may be the Jump, now the last remnant of the original Steeplechase Park ^[10].

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

What's on the mug

1
BROOKLYN lettering
BROOKLYN is printed in blue capitals across the lower half of a dark green circle at the centre of the drawing.
2
Pizza
A whole round pizza with red pepperoni slices and small green rings tilts above the green circle.
3
Wonder Wheel, Coney Island
A Ferris wheel with green spokes around a blue hub, with red and cream gondolas on the rim, stands at the upper left. Its green bracing, and the Parachute Jump tower (5) beside it, point to the Wonder Wheel at Coney Island, whose spokes are braced by green beams and whose fixed cars are painted white. The drawing is simplified, so the sliding cars that set the real wheel apart are not clearly shown. The mug doesn't name it.^[12]
4
Roller coaster
A roller coaster with a blue lattice frame curves up behind the lettering, with a car of riders near the top of a hill. Coney Island has more than one coaster, and the blue frame does not match the white framework of the Cyclone, so we do not name it.
5
Parachute Jump, Coney Island
A tall orange-red lattice tower narrows as it rises and ends in an open ring with arms around the top. That outline matches the Parachute Jump, a six-sided steel tower with arms at the top from which the parachutes hung, now painted red and standing at Coney Island. The mug doesn't name it.^[5]^[11]
6
Green streetcar
A streamlined streetcar with a dark green lower body, thin blue stripes, a cream band, large pale green side windows and a row of small blue windows under the roof runs along the bottom left. Its rounded shape resembles the PCC streetcars Brooklyn ran from 1936 to 1956, which wore light green and silver after 1946, but the drawing has no number or route to confirm it. The mug doesn't name it.^[16]
7
Torii gate, Brooklyn Botanic Garden
A red gate with two crossbars, flanked by low red fences, stands over blue waves at the upper right, among green trees, a tree with red-pink leaves and plants in red-edged beds. A red Japanese torii standing in a pond is the signature of the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, whose own page describes its vermilion-colored wooden torii. The mug doesn't name it.^[13]^[14]
8
Two people on a beach towel
Two figures, one in sunglasses with blue hair, sit on a red towel on yellow sand, with blue waves on both sides. The drawing does not show which beach.
9
Arcaded building by the water (may be the Prospect Park Boathouse)
A two-storey cream building with a row of red arches on the ground floor, columns above and a red roof stands over blue water, with steps at its left end. It may be the Boathouse in Prospect Park, a white terra-cotta building with an arcade facing the Lullwater, but the red roof and red arches are not confirmed features of it. The mug doesn't name it.^[17]^[18]
10
Red arched bridge (may be the garden's bridge)
A small red arched bridge crosses blue waves below the torii, beside a blue-green tree with a twisting trunk. It may be the garden's view to the right of the torii in Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Japanese garden, where, in the garden's own words, "an arched bridge leads to a small grassy island, where a Japanese black pine has been pruned to look windblown and contorted with age." The garden has more than one bridge and the drawing is simple, so this stays a likely match. The mug doesn't name it.^[15]
11
Spinning ride wheels
Below the Ferris wheel, three small red-and-white wheels (and part of a fourth at the left edge) on a pale frame look like a spinning fairground ride. We cannot match them to a named ride.
12
Brick building with star bunting
At the far left, a red brick building with green-and-cream steps and arched windows is hung with blue bunting dotted with white stars. We cannot match it to a named building.

The photo shows one side of the mug against a teal background. The back and the area behind the handle are out of view.

Collector notes

The seaside rides (the Ferris wheel, the roller coaster and the tower) cluster at the left, while the trolley, the gate and the sunbathers are lower and to the right, so a partial photo shows only half of them.
Brooklyn shares the dark green circle with other Discovery mugs such as Georgia, so rely on the blue lettering and the pizza rather than the circle alone.

Before you buy

The photo shows one side of the mug, so the back and the area behind the handle are out of view. Other Discovery mugs, such as Georgia, share the dark green circle, so check for the blue BROOKLYN lettering and the pizza. No other series is listed for Brooklyn on this page.