Starbucks Detroit mug: Discovery Series
The Detroit mug from Starbucks' Discovery Series sets the city name in red over a dark green circle, with a saxophonist in a striped suit, a bass player, a music stand, a city skyline, a cluster of gears and a tall tower.
- Series
- Discovery Series
- Place
- Detroit, Michigan, USA
- Type
- Mug
- Released
- Not confirmed
- Capacity
- 14 fl ozstandard mug size
- SKU
- Not confirmed
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The summer Detroit's free jazz festival almost ended
Every Labor Day weekend, a free jazz festival fills Hart Plaza and Campus Martius Park in downtown Detroit [1]. In February 2005 it nearly stopped. Ford, its title sponsor for a decade, announced it was leaving [2]. The festival had begun in 1980 as the Montreux-Detroit Jazz Festival, an idea from the Detroit Renaissance group to bring visitors into the city [1]. Now it needed a backer, fast. Gretchen Valade, the Carhartt heiress who owned Mack Avenue Records, gave $250,000 [3], and she went on to set up a foundation to keep the festival free, refusing to put her own name on it [4]. Today it survives on donations; its artistic director says it must raise nearly $5 million a year [5]. The saxophonist on the Detroit mug (2) could be on that stage.
The mug does not label its drawings, so connecting this one to the story is our reading.
What's on the mug
- 1Lettering
DETROIT in red capitals over a dark green circle.
- 2Saxophonist
A musician in a pale pinstriped suit and wide-brimmed hat plays a saxophone at the left of the lettering.
- 3Bass player
A bass player in a blue shirt stands at the left edge.
- 4Music stand
A music stand with an open score sits above the lettering, with music notes around it.
- 5City skyline
Blue and pink city blocks sit below the lettering.
- 6Gears
A cluster of blue and purple gears and machine parts sits at the right of the circle.
- 7Tall tower
A tall slender tower rises beside a patterned pink panel at the upper right.
The photo shows one side of the mug. The back and the area behind the handle are out of view.
Collector notes
- The photo shows the mug on its dark green gift box, printed STARBUCKS DISCOVERY SERIES in light capitals.
- The two musicians fill the left of the design and the gears sit at the right, near the handle, so a photo from the left misses the gears.
Before you buy
Our photo shows the mug on a dark green gift box printed STARBUCKS DISCOVERY SERIES. The gears sit at the right, so a photo taken from the left misses them. Detroit also has Been There, Icon and You Are Here mugs, which look different.
