Starbucks Mississippi mug: Discovery Series

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

Starbucks Discovery Series Mississippi mug with a blue crab, a butterfly, a riverboat and a slice of pie around the word MISSISSIPPI — Front view · numbered markers match the list below Show markers

The front shows Mississippi's state butterfly (spicebush swallowtail) and state flower (magnolia), a blue crab, a riverboat under a red truss bridge on a wide river, a slice of pie and an iced drink in a jar.

Series: Discovery Series
Place: Mississippi, 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 dinner party where the boat started to move

Nicholas Roosevelt invited the doubters of Louisville to dine aboard his new steamboat, the New Orleans ^[1]. Mid-feast the cabin began to rumble and move, and the guests ran for the deck, sure the boat had slipped her anchor and was drifting toward the Falls of the Ohio ^[1]. Roosevelt's brother-in-law J. H. B. Latrobe wrote sixty years later that it was arranged: the boat was steaming upriver ^[1]. Her real job lay farther south, as a packet between Natchez and New Orleans ^[2]. She waited weeks for the Ohio to rise, then crossed the Falls on 8 December ^[3]. About a week later the first shock of a major earthquake reached her, and it changed the shape of the Mississippi ^[4]. A Natchez report dated 1 January called her a boat "so long expected here," and according to a passenger, about 300 acres of riverbank had caved in at one place ^[5]. On 23 January she set out toward Natchez and made 75 miles in her first 24 hours ^[6]. The riverboat on the Mississippi mug (5) may be a distant descendant of that first one.

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

What's on the mug

1
MISSISSIPPI lettering
MISSISSIPPI in orange-yellow capitals across a large dark green circle. It is the only text on the front.
2
Blue crab
A crab with an orange-and-yellow shell inside a red spiky rim, two small dark eyes, blue legs and two raised claws: one at the upper left and one above the lettering, both blue with red tips. Bright blue claws with red tips are how a field guide describes the claws of a mature female blue crab; the orange shell is the artist's colour, not a live crab's. The mug doesn't name it.^[11]
3
Spicebush swallowtail (state butterfly)
A dark butterfly washed with blue on all four wings, with black veins, rows of white spots along the wing edges, a row of orange dots on the hind wings and a red body. That matches the spicebush swallowtail, black with pale marginal spots and a blue or green flush on the hind wing, which Mississippi made its state butterfly in 1991. The mug doesn't name it.^[7]^[8]
4
Magnolia (state flower)
A large flower with thick petals in pale blue and dark teal and an orange centre, backed by a red leaf with a yellow centre stripe and dark blue leaves, beside the handle. It is drawn as a magnolia, whose big creamy white flowers have six to twelve petals. The magnolia is Mississippi's state flower. The mug doesn't name it.^[9]^[10]
5
Riverboat
A long white riverboat on a pale blue river below the lettering: a deck section with red stripes and two red stacks at the left, then a white cabin with portholes and a large round window. Just behind it floats a small red boat with two red sails, and a small dark boat with upright stacks sits off its bow at the left. The river is not named; it is probably meant as the Mississippi, but the mug doesn't say so.
6
Red truss bridge
A long red-orange truss bridge on piers crosses the river at the left, rising higher in its middle span. Several Mississippi River bridges in the state have this cantilever-truss shape, and the drawing is too simple to pick one. The mug doesn't name it.
7
Slice of pie
A wedge of pie with a dark crust and a white filling, topped with maroon zigzag drizzle and small orange dots, at the lower right. The mug doesn't say what kind of pie it is.
8
Jar of iced drink
A mason jar of red-orange drink, with pale blue rings at the rim, citrus slices inside, a straw and a slice on the rim, at the right edge by the handle. It could be iced tea or a fruit drink; the mug doesn't say which.
9
Wooded riverbanks
A dark line of trees along the far bank, inside the green circle, with an orange sandy strip along the water below it, and a clump of dark green trees on the near bank at the lower left. They frame the river the riverboat is on.
10
Orange mark
A small orange S-shaped mark beside the crab's left claw, near the top rim, with a round dot at the lower end and a curl at the top. It looks like a musical note, but it is too small to say more.

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

Collector notes

The photo is slightly out of focus and shows the dark box behind the mug, with the print STARBUCKS DISCOVERY SERIES partly hidden by the mug.
The crab and the butterfly sit above the lettering, while the riverboat and the dessert sit below it.

Before you buy

The photo shows one side of this 14 fl oz Discovery Series mug, so the back and the area behind the handle are out of view. Starbucks also made a Mississippi mug in the Been There series, so check the series name in the listing before you buy.