Starbucks South Carolina mug: Discovery Series

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

Starbucks Discovery Series South Carolina mug with a bird, yellow flowers, a bridge, a Ferris wheel and a beach umbrella around the words SOUTH CAROLINA — Front view · numbered markers match the list below Show markers

A Charleston-to-Myrtle Beach mug: the Ravenel Bridge with its diamond towers, a palmetto, yellow jessamine and a wren-like bird, what looks like Rainbow Row and the SkyWheel, shrimp and grits, iced tea and a beach with a parasail.

Series: Discovery Series
Place: South Carolina, 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 a runaway ship cut Charleston's bridge in two

On the afternoon of 24 February 1946, a sudden storm tore a 12,000-ton cargo ship loose from its mooring in the Cooper River at Charleston ^[1]. Its engines were off. It drifted toward Mount Pleasant, and its stern slammed into the Grace Memorial Bridge as traffic was crossing ^[1]. A 240-foot length of the road fell away ^[1]. Most cars stopped. One did not, and its passengers were lost when the car plunged into the river, according to Charleston magazine ^[1]. Drivers heading to Mount Pleasant found a two-and-a-half-mile trip stretched to 80 ^[1]. Repairs lasted until June, just in time for a bridge paid for by tolls since 1929 to become free ^[1]. The Grace is gone now, replaced by the Ravenel Bridge in 2005 ^[1]. The cable-stayed bridge on the South Carolina mug (4) may be the Ravenel, the bridge that replaced it.

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

What's on the mug

1
SOUTH CAROLINA lettering
SOUTH CAROLINA is printed in light blue capitals across a large dark green circle in the middle of the design.
2
Bird that may be a Carolina wren
A bird with a long, slightly curved orange bill, a yellow breast and blue wings marked with white triangles perches on a striped straw at the upper left. It may stand for the Carolina wren, the state bird, though the real wren is brown and buff rather than blue and yellow, so the colours here are the artist's. The mug doesn't name it.^[2]
3
Yellow jessamine
A spray of pale yellow flowers, each with five rounded lobes, sits on long green leaves above the lettering. The shape and colour match yellow jessamine, South Carolina's state flower, a vine that blooms in early spring. The mug doesn't name it.^[3]
4
Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge
An orange cable-stayed bridge crosses the top of the green circle on two tall towers whose legs meet at a point at the top, with fans of blue cables down to the deck. Two diamond-shaped towers are the mark of the Ravenel Bridge over the Cooper River in Charleston, which replaced the Grace Memorial Bridge in 2005. The mug doesn't name it.^[1]^[6]
5
Palmetto tree
A palm with a crown of spiky blue, green and yellow fronds and a tall cross-hatched trunk stands at the right, next to the handle. It is the sabal palmetto, South Carolina's state tree, which is also on the state seal and flag. The mug doesn't name it.^[4]
6
Ferris wheel that resembles the Myrtle Beach SkyWheel
A green and yellow Ferris wheel with a ring of small blue cabins stands at the lower left, beside high-rise buildings and the beach. It resembles the SkyWheel on the Myrtle Beach boardwalk, but the drawing is too simple to rule out another seaside wheel. The mug doesn't name it.^[8]
7
Beach umbrella and chair
An orange, yellow and green beach umbrella leans over a blue deck chair with an orange frame on a patch of sand below the lettering. (The striped shape above them, listed here before as a balloon, is a parasail: see 11.)
8
Bowl that looks like shrimp and grits
An orange bowl at the lower right holds a pale yellow, creamy base topped with pink shrimp and flecks of green and black. It looks like shrimp and grits, a Lowcountry dish of the South Carolina and Georgia coast. The mug doesn't name it.^[9]
9
Jar of iced tea
A handled glass jar of amber iced tea with ice cubes, a lemon slice and a blue striped straw stands at the left edge. It may nod to tea, South Carolina's official hospitality beverage; the state symbol is South Carolina-grown tea, and the mug doesn't say so.^[5]
10
Pastel row houses that may be Rainbow Row
Behind the bird, at the far left edge, stand narrow two- and three-storey houses in blue, pink and orange with rows of square windows. Pastel row houses in South Carolina may be meant as Rainbow Row on East Bay Street in Charleston, but only a sliver shows in this photo. The mug doesn't name it.^[7]
11
Parasail and towing boat
A yellow and blue striped canopy flies above the beach on a long line that runs down to a small boat on the water. It is a parasail being towed, not a hot-air balloon.
12
Fishing pier
A long blue pier on posts runs out over the water to the right of the beach scene. The drawing has no detail that ties it to one named pier.
13
Beachfront high-rises
A cluster of yellow, blue and orange tower blocks stands between the Ferris wheel and the umbrella, like the hotels along an oceanfront strip. No single building can be identified.

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 one line, SOUTH CAROLINA, in light blue across the middle of the dark green circle.
The bridge and the palm tree are at the right, and the bird, the flowers and the jar of iced tea at the left.

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 Been There Series also has a South Carolina mug, so check the series name before you order.