Starbucks Lake Tahoe mug: Discovery Series

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

Starbucks Discovery Series Lake Tahoe mug with a black bear, skis, casino chips and a tent around the words LAKE TAHOE — Front view · numbered markers match the list below Show markers

The Lake Tahoe Discovery Series mug shows Tahoe Tessie in the lake, an American black bear, an A-frame cabin, skis and poles, a slot machine and casino chips for the Nevada-side casinos, a tent and pines.

Series: Discovery Series
Place: Lake Tahoe, USA
Type: Mug
Released: Not confirmed
Capacity: 14 fl ozstandard mug size
SKU: Not confirmed

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Mark Twain at Tahoe: the fairest picture on earth, and the fire he set

In September 1861, a young Mark Twain walked from Carson City to Lake Tahoe with his friend Johnny Kinney to stake a timber claim and, as he put it, become wealthy ^[1]. The lake was still called Lake Bigler ^[2]. He wrote that it was “the fairest picture the whole earth affords,” and that fewer than fifteen other people were around it ^[1]. Then he lit a cooking fire on the shore, went back to the boat for the frying pan, and the fire got away from him. They sat in the boat and watched it burn for four hours ^[1]. In Roughing It he says he stayed two or three weeks; a letter to his mother written at the time says four days ^[2]. The Mark Twain Project confirms that the fire was real and that Twain admitted causing it ^[2]. A panel trail on the North Shore now follows the timber claim, from Tunnel Creek Road to Carnelian Bay ^[3]. The lake, spelled LAKE TAHOE in pale blue on the mug (1), survived him.

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

What's on the mug

1
LAKE TAHOE lettering
LAKE TAHOE in pale blue capitals on two lines, set over a large dark green circle.
2
American black bear
A tall bear drawn in black with blue and teal fur marks stands on its hind legs to the right of the lettering, with a lime-green muzzle and ears. Black bears live around the lake, and wildlife agencies on both the California and Nevada sides run a joint bear team there. The mug doesn't name the species.^[6]
3
Skis and ski poles
A pair of green skis with black and white bindings and two blue poles with green grips lean across the top of the green circle. They stand for skiing, which is a large part of the Tahoe economy; the mug doesn't name a resort.^[7]
4
Casino chips
A large chip stands on its edge at the left, beside a stack of about four striped chips with a pale top chip, with one loose green chip just below, all by the bear's right leg (on the viewer's left). They point to the casinos on the Nevada side of the lake. The mug doesn't name a casino.^[7]
5
Slot machine
A blue slot machine stands behind the bear's shoulder: a rounded top with a fan of rays, a green light on top, a row of moon, cherry and star symbols, three reels reading 7, 8 and 7, a pay table and two green buttons. Like the chips, it stands for the Nevada-side casinos; no casino is named.^[7]
6
Dome tent
A small pale grey dome tent with a dark door sits on a blue patch of ground below a tall pine at the lower left.
7
A-frame cabin
A steep blue A-frame cabin with rows of small windows and one green window stands at the far left, cut off by the edge of the photo. The A-frame is a common building type around the Lake Tahoe Basin, built in numbers during the post-war ski boom. The mug doesn't name a particular cabin.^[8]
8
Tahoe Tessie, the lake monster
A green creature shows three humps above blue ripples in the lake: a head with an eye, a curved back and a finned tail. It is drawn the way Tahoe Tessie, the lake's legendary monster, is usually shown, as a Nessie-style serpent. The mug doesn't name it.^[4]^[5]
9
Moon
A pale blue full moon with darker blue spots sits just right of the cabin's roof, among small stars and snowflakes.
10
Snowflake and stars
A large pale blue snowflake, small green and blue stars and tiny flower-like flakes fill the sky above the lettering.
11
Lake and mountain ridge
A dark ridge and white clouds sit behind a blue lake edged with small pine trees at the lower left. This is probably the lake itself, but the drawing shows no feature that ties it to one shore or bay.
12
Teal cylinder on a green ledge
A teal cylinder with a pale top sits on a lime-green ledge beside the cabin. It might be a tree stump or a hot tub; the drawing is too simple to tell.
13
Pine trees
A tall lime-green pine with dark bands of branches stands above the tent, and many small green and black pines line the shore below the lake. The trees are not drawn closely enough to name a species.

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

Collector notes

The lettering is on two lines, LAKE over TAHOE, in pale blue on the dark green circle.
The bear stands on its hind legs beside the handle with a slot machine at its shoulder, so those two are easy to miss in a photo from the left.
The photo shows one face of the mug with the handle at the right. The opposite face, and the area under the handle, are in no photo; the A-frame cabin is cut off at the left edge.

Before you buy

LAKE and TAHOE sit on two lines in pale blue. The bear stands beside the handle with the slot machine at its shoulder, so a photo from the left misses both. Been There, Icon and You Are Here Tahoe mugs exist and look different.