After last year’s drama, Starbucks unveils holiday cups designed by 13 women

On this bleary, post-election afternoon, I trudged through Brookfield Place, a fancy mall in Manhattan’s Financial District, with the promise of being one of the first to see Starbucks’ 2016 holiday cup.

I entered the mall’s Starbucks thinking: Can we please just let this cup thing be drama-free?

Last year, some people were upset that the plain red cups weren’t Christmas-y enough.

This year’s holiday cups are red and white, and feature 13 different designs from 13 women from six countries.

“We hope that this year’s red holiday cup designs express the shared spirit of the holidays as told by our customers,” Sharon Rothstein, Starbucks’ global chief marketing officer, said in a press release.

The spacious Starbucks at Brookfield Place featured a stage, complimentary drinks, a DJ and an excited crowd.

Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, took the stage to present the video announcing this year’s cups.

He acknowledged the firestorm that last year’s plain red cups caused. (Donald Trump, our new president-elect, even proposed a boycott of the coffee chain one year ago.)

After 19 consecutive years of “designing a red cup that will be seen all over the world, we decided to do something quite different,” Schultz told the crowd. “With everything that’s going on in the world, and everything that’s going on in our country, we have a lot to be thankful for.”

Nancy Poznoff, the VP of Marketing at Starbucks, then came on stage. She explained that last year, Instagram garnered 1,200 displays of red cup art from 13 different countries over the course of eight days. In representation of those 13 countries, 13 women’s designs were chosen.

She then welcomed 11 of the 13 cup designers up to the stage. The women represent various American cities as well as Indonesia, Dubai, Canada, Russia and South Korea.

“I love the Christmas season so I was really inspired. To me, the color red symbolizes the celebration of love and life,” Anz Soza, one of the designers from Dubai, said.

“The magnolia symbolizes friends and love and the hedge sparrow represents faith and creativity. I hope that my design inspires people to joyfully love life and be creative, even when faced with tough times,” said Florencia, from Bandung, Indonesia.

There is also a holiday-themed iced coffee cup, designed by Tracy from Los Angeles.

“I love the nature and the woods, so I decided to illustrate a wooden wreath with ornaments of various shapes and patterns,” Tracy said. “Topping it all off is some snow, a bow and a dash of holiday spirit.”

After an emotional election night and a decision that has reminded me and millions of other women that yes, in fact, we still have a long way to go, seeing 11 proud young women on stage felt like it mattered.

Believe me, I was not expecting to find solace today at a Starbucks cup launch event. But seeing a powerful American corporation positively employing the designs of 13 diverse women means something.

No matter what the design is, Starbucks’ holiday cups are sure to cause a stir for years to come, and it will be particularly interesting to see what sort of drama they cause this year.

The 2016 red cups will be available at 25,000 Starbucks locations across 75 countries starting Thursday, Nov. 10.