Starbucks Unveils 2022 Holiday Cups, Marking 25 Years Of The Festive Tradition
There’s no doubt Starbucks’ signature holiday cups and concoctions have become a winter staple. Truly, are the holidays really approaching if you’ve not had a Toffee Nut Latte?
The tradition, which first began back in 1997, began with artwork by designer Sandy Nelson, who created the first set of holiday cups for the coffee chain.
At the time, not all the designs featured the iconic red seen in recent years, with rich shades of magenta, sapphire, emerald, and purple popping through. Sporting block-style patterns and swirls, the cups bore Christmas motifs of hand-drawn holly leaves, complete with flecks of coffee beans.
Starbucks’ signature candy-apple red appeared two years later, and it caused so much buzz that early blogs and nascent social media platforms had countdown clocks charting the time to when the drinkware would turn “red again.”
In honor of the 25th anniversary of the first Starbucks holiday cups, the brand has unveiled a new set of four designs for the year, all wrapped like gifts in tribute to how they looked all those years ago.
“We have always talked about the cups as little gifts, and we hope they feel like a festive present to our customers and store partners,” explained Gary Jacobson, Starbucks’ Creative Director for this year’s holiday campaign.
A team of designers collaborated on a collection of familiar holiday motifs—including sparkles, ornaments, ribbons, and snowflakes—together with a gift tag printed on the back of each cup for customers to pen a personalized note.
Coincidentally, this year marks the 20th anniversary of the Peppermint Mocha as well, hence the addition of mint green accents to the designs.
“We are really focused on creating a joyful experience throughout the entire Starbucks experience—whether a customer is visiting at our drive-thru or in our café. Whatever we touch, we wanted to make sure that we make someone’s day a little brighter in a holiday way,” sums up Jacobson.
