Starbucks Holiday Cups Land On "Starbucks" Theme This Year

Hark! Unto us, a venti is born. For the 22nd holiday season in a row, Starbucks has graced the hot-beverage-drinking world with a new line of seasonal cups, the theme of which appears this year to be: Starbucks. Please hold your applause till the end.

These cups, such a meta-rendering of the holiday tradition, are nothing short of art. And what staggering, challenging works they are! The second-from-the-left cup above comes right up to the brink of a non-secular greeting with the phrase "MERRY COFFEE," a risk that pays dividends of laughter and delight. The tumble of letters on the right-hand cup is similarly playful; the prevalence of "UCK"s might first look profane, but it's nothing more than a trick of the eye (a commentary, surely, on the human need to suffuse objects with meaning). The middle cup's polka dots are sporadically interrupted by a sprinkling of half a dozen Starbucks logos, a subtle nod to the object's purpose and intention. With this exhibition of new cups, Starbucks has made the artistically bold choice, at a time of year when there is so much to celebrate, to celebrate the very notion of Starbucks itself.

Okay, now you may applaud.