Been There – Japan

It has been a while since the release of the Starbucks Been There – Japan mug, and I have no excuse for not adding it to the collection. Similar to the YAH series, the Japan country mug is unique in the sense, that it has four siblings representing four seasons of the year: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. I will be adding those four to the collection soon.

The design of this “regular” mug uses red and yellow colors. Here are some symbols of Japan that I am seeing on it:

Fuji, also known as Mount Fuji, is Japan’s iconic stratovolcano and the country’s tallest peak, standing at 12,389 ft.… Read more

Been There – Curacao

Starbucks Been There – Curaçao mug was initially spotted in personal collections back in 2019, however it was never seen in stores till recently. Not sure what was the reason for the delay, but here it is, brand new and nice looking.

Curaçao, a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, lies in the southern Caribbean Sea, about 65 kilometers north of the Venezuelan coast. Its capital and largest city, Willemstad, is renowned for its colorful Dutch colonial architecture, earning it recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.… Read more

Been There Christmas – Philippines

Starbucks Been There Christmas Philippines mug is the Holiday Edition of the regular mug that I’ve reviewed two years ago. If you compare these two mugs side by side (see the picture below), it becomes obvious that they’re quite different. Looking back at the holiday releases from previous years, I expected small elements added or replaced to introduce that Christmas spirit: trees are replaced with Christmas trees, gifts, snowmen, candy canes, etc. With the Been There Christmas Philippines mug, Starbucks decided to go that extra mile to make it unique.… Read more

Mainland China Been There ornaments

What you see is the picture of the brand new Been There Ornaments released for Mainland China. There are thirteen cities and one country ornament revealed so far. The city ones match the design and the color palette of the bigger mugs (I reviewed them in my previous post). The country ornament, however, is special in at least two ways. First, there is no matching bigger mug for it, at least for now. And the second distinctive feature is the use of gold colors in the design.… Read more

Been There Series comes to China

The reveal of the new mugs for China is always a huge deal. When Starbucks was done with releasing YAHs from Zhongguo (the Middle Kingdom/country in Mandarin), we were left with eighty-one regular mugs and that not counting six Christmas mugs. And just to give it more context, it is even more than the US subset! That just shows us how valuable the Chinese market is for Starbucks and how confident the company is in the demand for these mugs.… Read more

Been There Ornament – Philippines

Two years ago, I’ve mentioned that as many as seventeen mugs and four ornaments were released for the Pearl of the Orient Sea. And while I reviewed all regular-size mugs back then, the ornaments had to wait for their turn. I am finally able to add all four mini mugs to my collection.
This is Starbucks Been There Ornament Philippines. You can see my review of the bigger the bigger mug here. From what I can see, these two have many common elements, which is not always true for Been There mugs.… Read more

You Are Here Christmas – Sweden

Christmas mug in July? I’ll take it! Thanks to our follower, it was revealed that a very interesting release was missing from the Starbucks-Mugs.com collection. I hasten to fix this mistake and place You Are Here Christmas – Sweden mug where it belongs! The release of the Sweden Christmas ornament makes more sense now. For some reason, I didn’t question why there was no bigger version of it then.
Below, is a side-by-side comparison of the holiday edition mug with the regular mug.… Read more

Icon – Turks & Caicos

I was not expecting to be adding any more Icons to the collection, but this one is special. Starbucks Icon Turks & Caicos is a very limited edition mug that either was never offered to the public or the whole lot was acquired by one person! My understanding is, that the reason it was not produced in bigger quantities, is that by the time the first store on the Grand Turk Island has finally opened, Starbucks had already switched to Been There collection.… Read more

You Are Here – Euskadi

Here’s an interesting release for a country within a country. Officially, it is the Basque Autonomous Community, but probably a more common name is “The Basque Country”. Starbucks chose to use the local (Basque) name for the mug, hence the title is You Are Here Euskadi.
Speaking of the language, it is very important to note, that the Basque language (Euskera) is not related to Romance languages (Latin) like Spanish or French, and is one of the oldest languages that are being spoken today.… Read more

Been There – Barbados

Starbucks Been There – Barbados mug commemorates, in a way, the official opening of the first Starbucks store in this island country from the Caribbean region. Located at Haggatt Hall, Bridgetown (the country’s capital), it welcomes its first customers starting today (July 30).
The mug showcases the flora and fauna of the island, which is one of the major touristic destinations of the region.
I am seeing Carlisle Bay, with Bridgetown in the back. This natural harbor has been turned into a marine park which became a popular spot for scuba diving.… Read more

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