Last week, coffee giant Starbucks unveiled Teavana in Manhattan, a tea bar that caters to the 158 million tea-drinking Americans.
Now it has revamped its cups, one of the most iconic aspects of its stores. The redesign was inspired by the ritual of drinking tea, and is meant to evoke the feeling of drinking from porcelain china. This meant doing away with the cardboard sleeves and flat cardboard texture of the traditional Starbucks cup.
The new cup features double-walled insulation and is made of embossed paper with a feathery, foamy feel, and the result is an elegant minimalist look. Daniele Monti, Creative Director for Emerging Brands at Starbucks, said “It’s a Zen moment, and the cup should reflect that.”
It also sports a curvier, organic look with a wider opening for drinkers to sip more tea in one go, as tea has a subtler flavor than coffee.
Check out the redesigned cup below.
[via Fast Company]