Starbucks New Jersey mug: Discovery Series

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

Starbucks Discovery Series New Jersey mug with a pizza, wrapped candies, a sandcastle and autumn leaves around the words NEW JERSEY — Front view · numbered markers match the list below Show markers

The New Jersey mug shows violets (the state flower), red oak leaves and acorns (the state tree), wrapped candies that may be salt water taffy, a tomato, a pizza, a figure building a sandcastle, a shoreline and what looks like a drive-in screen with cars.

Series: Discovery Series
Place: New Jersey, 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 man who tried to own the name salt water taffy

In 1923, John F. Edmiston of Wildwood, New Jersey, laid claim to two words: salt water taffy ^[1]. The Patent Office granted his petition to register them as a trademark ^[1]. Then he wrote to the competition. According to the New York Times, he told every other maker to stop using the name and said he would collect royalties on all taffy made since 1895 ^[1]. About 500 candy manufacturers, chiefly along the Atlantic seaboard, were in his path. James Brothers of Atlantic City took up the fight in August 1924 ^[1]. By March 1925 the makers had won the right to keep using the name ^[1]. Nobody has pinned down where the words came from. The tale of a shop flooded in a storm in 1883 is probably apocryphal, and the earliest printed use found so far is a Pennsylvania newspaper from 1886 ^[2]. Once pulled and cut, the taffy was wrapped in paper with a twist at both ends ^[2]. The wrapped candies on the New Jersey mug (4) may be salt water taffy.

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

What's on the mug

1
NEW JERSEY lettering
NEW JERSEY in light blue capitals runs across a dark green circle in the middle of the design, the last letters spilling onto the yellow sand at the right.
2
Pizza
A round pizza on a light blue pan, yellow and orange with white chunks of cheese and dark flecks, sits at the bottom of the green circle, with one slice pulled out to the right.
3
Tomato, possibly a Jersey tomato
A round orange tomato with a dark blue star-shaped stem sits at the foot of the pizza. It may stand for the Jersey tomato, one of the crops graded under the state's Jersey Fresh program, which added vine-ripened tomato rules in 2005. The mug doesn't name it.^[5]
4
Wrapped candies, possibly salt water taffy
Five wrapped candies in navy, light blue, orange, yellow and purple, most with bands in a contrasting colour, lie above the lettering at the left, each paper twisted at both ends. They look like salt water taffy, which was wrapped in paper twisted at both ends and is linked with the Atlantic City boardwalk. The mug doesn't name them.^[1]^[2]
5
Figure building a sandcastle
A figure with a blond ponytail, a purple cap, a striped top and orange shorts kneels on the top right edge of the green circle, working on the sandcastle. The face, arms and legs are drawn as a dark blue silhouette.
6
Sandcastle
A yellow sandcastle with orange crenellations, a striped tower and a purple flag stands on a mound of sand, with a purple shovel stuck in the sand beside it. Set into the front wall is a white Starbucks cup with a green circle on it.
7
Shoreline
Blue water with white wave lines meets a yellow beach along the lower left, with a dark line of trees on the far shore and a small dark upright shape at its left end, perhaps a boat or a lighthouse. A faded pale shape stands on the beach at the left edge, cut off by the curve of the mug. The mug doesn't name the place.
8
Red oak leaves and acorns (state tree)
Orange and yellow leaves with pointed lobes hang at the lower right of the circle, with blue-grey acorns among them. Pointed lobes and acorns fit the red oak, New Jersey's state tree. The colour does not: NJ.gov says red oak leaves turn bright red in autumn, while the leaves on the mug are orange and yellow. The mug doesn't name the tree.^[3]
9
Violets (state flower)
Purple five-petalled flowers with white streaks at the centre rise on thin stems at the far left, with dark heart-shaped leaves. Purple flowers with white throats over heart-shaped leaves match the common violet, New Jersey's state flower. The mug doesn't name it.^[3]^[4]
10
Screen that looks like a drive-in movie screen
At the far left edge, behind the violets, a large pale rectangle stands on a light blue and yellow frame, partly cut off by the curve of the mug. With the cars in front of it, it looks like a drive-in movie screen, though it could be a roadside sign; the first drive-in opened outside Camden, New Jersey. The mug doesn't name it.^[6]
11
Two cars
An orange car and a purple-blue sedan are parked side by side below the screen, at the left of the lettering. See item 10.

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

Collector notes

The inside of this mug is light blue, which shows clearly at the rim in the photo.
The pizza and the tomato sit under the lettering, while the candies are above it and the sandcastle is at the right, so each face of the mug carries a different food or beach scene.

Before you buy

The photo shows one side of the mug, so the back and the area behind the handle are out of view. The inside is light blue. New Jersey also appears in the Been There and You Are Here series, so check which series a mug belongs to before you order.