Starbucks San Francisco mug: Discovery Series

By The Starbucks Cups team · Last checked 2026-10-15 · How we make these pages

Starbucks Discovery Series San Francisco mug with a red suspension bridge, a ferry, a pelican and hillside houses around the words SAN FRANCISCO — Front view · numbered markers match the list below Show markers

The San Francisco mug from Starbucks' Discovery Series sets SAN FRANCISCO in yellow capitals over a dark green circle, with a red suspension bridge, a ferry boat, sailboats, a pelican, hillside houses and guitars.

Series: Discovery Series
Place: San Francisco, California, USA
Type: Mug
Released: Not confirmed
Capacity: 14 fl ozstandard mug size
SKU: Not confirmed

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When the Golden Gate Bridge almost wore stripes

The steel for the Golden Gate Bridge was coated in red lead primer, and the bridge's consulting architect, Irving Morrow, became inspired by that color ^[1]. On April 6, 1935, he sent chief engineer Joseph Strauss a Report on Color and Lighting ^[2]. He had rivals to beat. Black, Morrow judged, would be unattractive and would reduce the scale of the bridge more than any other color ^[3]. Proponents of aluminum said it would give the beauty of a dirigible aircraft ^[4]. Warm grey came in a distant second to orange vermillion ^[5]. Then there were the stripes. The district's own exhibit says a striped design was proposed to make the bridge more visible to ships and airplanes ^[6]. According to paint superintendent Rocky Dellarocca, the Navy wanted black and yellow, and the Bridge District said no way ^[7]. Morrow's line from the report: "What has been thus played up in form should not be let down in color" ^[8]. The bridge on the San Francisco mug (2) is red. The stripes never made it onto it.

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

What's on the mug

1
Lettering
SAN FRANCISCO in yellow capitals on two lines over a dark green circle.
2
Red suspension bridge
A red suspension bridge spans light blue water at the bottom of the circle.
3
Ferry boat
A red and white boat sails below the bridge at the left.
4
Sailboats
Small white sailboats dot the blue water at the right of the ferry.
5
Pelican
A bird with a long bill and wings spread flies at the top of the circle.
6
Hillside houses
Colourful narrow houses climb the left edge, with a yellow cable-car shape below.
7
Guitars
Two guitars lean at the upper left beside red flowers.
8
Red-roofed building
A white building with a red roof stands at the upper right of the circle.
9
Cable car Side view
A red cable car with passengers visible in its windows runs along the left edge of this view.
10
Winding road Side view
A dark road twists up a hill between green and blue trees, with a small red car near the top.
11
Domed building and swans Side view
A building with a red dome sits above a dark pond where two swans float.
12
Row of painted houses Side view
Three tall narrow houses in red, yellow and blue stand side by side.
13
Coit Tower Back view
A pale yellow tower with a column of windows rises behind red flowering bushes.
14
Sea lions Back view
Dark sea lions with yellow flippers lie on a red platform in the lower middle.
15
Second cable car Back view
A red cable car with a blue front fills the right edge of this view.
16
Bowl with a spoon Back view
A yellow bowl of white soup with a spoon lifted above it sits at the left.

The photo is small and shows one side of the mug sitting in its box. The back and the area behind the handle are out of view.

Collector notes

The inside of the mug cannot be seen in this photo, so its colour is not confirmed here.
The bridge and the water run along the bottom of the face, while the guitars and the houses sit at the far left, so a photo from the right misses them.

Before you buy

The photo shows one side of the mug, so the back and the area behind the handle are out of view, and the inside colour is not confirmed. San Francisco also appears in the Been There, Icon, Relief and You Are Here series; this one is the Discovery Series, 14 fl oz.