In January of this year I wrote a short blog post about collecting Starbucks city mugs. Six months later, my collection has grown a little, and so it’s time for a sequel to that first blog post.  For those who don’t recall the first episode of collecting city mugs, here it is:

Collecting Starbucks City Mugs

Let me clarify, I have not traveled around this country and around the world to these exotic places.  The truth of the matter is that there will be a number of you reading this blog who will say, “oh I sent Melody that mug!”  All I can really do is thank all the many wonderful people who made this blog post possible.

The black and white city mug requires an explanation.  That black and white mug IS part of the Starbucks city mug despite that it doesn’t look like the others.  It represents the Ruhrgebiet region of Germany where the major city of “Essen” is located.  The region is also called “Kohlenpott” or just “Pott” as in a “pot of coal.”  Starbucks produced very few of these mugs and it was sold in a few stores throughout these region.  The major historic industry was coal mining, and I have heard that nowadays there are many museums and sites featuring coal mining exhibits and information.  This mug truly is a part of the city mug collection but was produced as a black and white mug to give it a rugged and dirty look, representing the coal mining industry.  The image on the mug is supposed to represent a large coal mine.  I included one photo with the packaging so that it is more obvious that this really is part of the city mug collection.

The mug from Indonesia was sent to me from a blog reader in Jakarta. Thank you again! I feel like I should say that over and over again.  For those readers who are twitterers too, you can follow Starbucks Indonesia on twitter here.  The Starbucks Indonesia profile tweets in both Indonesian and English.

I pour a lot of hours each week into this blog, and it’s made much easier by the help I get from readers.  I never expect surprise mugs in the mail but I appreciate it!  Though if readers do have unique ideas for blog posts, tips on new stores or new food items, fabulous pictures of stores to show off (where they have the legal right to share the picture without a copyright infringement), I WELCOME emails about all of those topics and more. My email address is Sbux206@StarbucksMelody.com.

These mugs are beautiful so I have some trouble picking out a favorite.  What’s your favorite?