Every holiday season, our favorite coffee shops pull out all the stops in order to design the most unique and creative holiday cups. I went to four coffee shops and compared their designs to one another based on creativity, inclusiveness, diversity from past years, and overall visual appeal.

Caribou, a nation-wide chain, has only one cup design for this holiday season. It is a dull, blue background with small, white reindeer heads, and small pine trees. . Along with the deer, there are also small pine trees that are different shades of green. You can also find small white circles which I am assuming is snow along with little red circles which I think are suppose to be Rudolph’s nose. The cup itself is organized chaos with all these things spread around it. They also use bright red and white sleeves with the cup, which makes the cups colors stand out even more.  The red sleeve shows the Caribou logo in white with the words “La-

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Marandah Mangra-Dutcher

This is the Panera Cup.

a-latte” in the same white color. The white is the usual sleeve that comes with normal cups. However, it is extremely pleasing to the eye, as the white and red compliment the cups dull blue. It’s extremely fun but lacking in diversity to their previous years cups, as they mainly focus on Christmas for their design just like they have in the past.

Next on the menu, the midwest coffee chain, Scooter’s presents a cute, comic like design. The cup is majority white, with the top being a light blue to imitate the winter sky. Then among the snow-like white there are people dressed in bright colored, winter attire. They all either are going to or coming from a kiosk that is decorated in Christmas lights, and giving out mugs I assume are coffee. . The cup is extremely fun and intriguing, as the adorablely crafted people are moving amongst themselves. The brightness of there clothing sticks out making each of the people unique. I also find it extremely unique, as Scooters added an upbeat written message in white, “Share warmth, Be amazing.” The design includes some Christmas ideas but that is not the main focus of the design. Lids to this holiday cup are a bright red, which clashes with the cups design but adds visual appeal. The cups do not come with a sleeve. This cup design is really different from their past years since they usually  focusing on the color red, as it is their brand color. I’m  glad they branched out with their design however, because they  managed to get this unique look.

Starbucks, an international chain, is a completely different story. They have four different options for their customers. One of the four cups is different shades of green with a diamond pattern, along with stars in the middle of those diamonds. The second is a mainly red cup with white, pink, green and black vertical lines. Next, there is a cup that has outlines of mistletoe in green with red berries. Their last cup is red and white blurred color, smeared together. These cups are all really simple, but pleasing to the eye with bold and neutral colors. All the cups come with the same sleeve, . They feature the Starbucks symbol covered in snow with snow still falling around it. The lids on every cup are white, and add little to no visual appeal.They provide many different creative looks that do not mainly focus on Christmas as well, which is different from the past. In the past their designs have usually included reindeer, presents or candy canes. This is a big step, but shows that they are evolving as society evolves. Only two out of the four of these cups are shown in the picture above.

Finally we end with Panera’s Holiday cup. Their cup is a green shade, with reefs a lighter shade of green, and trees a darker shade of green. There are also white accents throughout the entire cup. It is lining the plants like snow, but there is also a white rope holding the plants up that goes across the top of the cup. Although the cup does not focus much on Christmas, the cup overall seems extremely boring. There is not much going on. The cups colors are great choices but nothing really sticks out to me, or makes this cup unique. Panera has done cups like this prior to this year, with themes that are extremely simple. I am not the biggest fan or this cup.

The cups overall rank from least to best is:

4. Panera

3. Caribou

2. Starbucks

1. Scooters