Multi-billion conglomerate Starbucks has offered fans a glimpse behind the curtains for this year's holiday cups, which are slated to jingle all the way to stores on November 7. The holiday cups will be based on the “Merrier Together” theme, according to the official press release.
Here's what the official website states:
"Starting Nov. 7, Starbucks stores will be decked out for the holidays and we’re sharing the story behind this year’s bright and beautiful collection of holiday cups."
What we know about Starbucks' seasonal offering
The brand's seasonal offering includes designs for four cups for hot drinks and one for cold, which will be available for all in-store orders. Here's what to expect this November 7:
Warm Wishes: It features interconnected dots reminiscent of glowing holiday lights.
Joyful Connection: The circular shapes that adorn the cup are an ode to the art of coffee roasting and "the joy of being together."
Lyrical Landscape: The vibrant rise and fall of the lines are a nod to the perfectly wrapped holiday gifts.
Siren Chorus: A cup after its namesake, the brand's Siren, the cups feature a pattern seen in the raking of coffee beans in the sun, as well as the flowing lines of the sea creature herself.
According to Kristy Cameron, Starbucks' creative director for this year's holiday cup designs:
"We love finding these genuine moments of joy and coffee to inspire the creative. Whether that’s coffee trees growing, beans roasting, cups toasting, or lights glowing – we wanted to share the warmth of our coffeehouse and the anticipation of the red cups arriving with our customers and partners.”
This year, the popular red and green make a comeback alongside new features like "fondant-inspired" pastels. She continued, reflecting on the quintessential Christmas colors adorning the cups:
"We’re really excited to lean into greens this year. The jade green is so vibrant and bright, and we love how it references our brand colors in a way that brings a spark of joy to our holiday cups this season.”
The website also reveals that old-timey Christmas ornaments and peppermints inspired the design of the cups, while the brand's popular Siren inspired the wavy motifs. Baristas have a badge area to pen messages on the back of the cups. Cameron weighed in on the same:
"We’re calling it the ‘siren wave.’ It is a beautiful little holiday trim feature that you can see on our signs and packaging, or as a gift tag on the back of our cups as a place for baristas to write messages to our customers. It comes almost directly from her hair shape, zooming in on our siren and our logo and playing with some of the shapes and negative space.”
In speaking about why the brand settled on the theme "Merrier Together,” she noted that the team kept circling around the "notion of voices coming together, like our siren singing." Cameron said the theme was perfect because it almost felt "musical in a way.”