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Giant, house-sized Starbucks Mug appears in Tokyo, so Mr. Sato grabs own huge mug to check it out

Casey Baseel Nov 28, 2019
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The man behind the Internet’s giant Starbucks mug meme drinks from a jumbo mug inside a jumbo mug.

Every few months Starbucks brings out a new line of cool drinkware, but one of our all-time favorite pieces is Starbucks Japan’s Big Logo Mug. The name is a little ambiguous, though, since it’s not just the logo that’s big, but the mug itself too.

How big? Well, it weighs 9.5 kilograms (20.9 pounds), making it closer to weightlifting equipment than drinking vessels in terms of heft. Honestly, the Big Logo Mug was marketed as an interior decoration, but after we made the wise fiscal decision to purchase one for 86,400 yen (US$800), we figured we’d better get some practical use out of it, and so it’s become our ace reporter Mr. Sato’s special cup for special-occasion coffee.

▼ You may also remember it from the time it got Mr. Sato got turned into an Internet meme.

https://twitter.com/bojackin/status/826123516319772672

But recently, Mr. Sato heard tales of an even bigger Starbucks mug appearing in Tokyo. Feeling intrigued, but also a little protective of the reputation of his own gargantuan cup, he decided to check it out, while of course bringing his Big Logo Mug with him.

The even larger mug was said to be in the Kitte shopping center, located in Tokyo’s Marunouchi district. Rather than making Mr. Sato lug the Big Logo Mug across downtown, our boss, Yoshio, graciously offered to drive him there in Japan’s cheapest car. Unfortunately, the only parking spot they could find was still a short walk from the building, so Mr. Sato ended up having to carry the Big Logo Mug the rest of the way (Yoshio would have loved to help, of course, but he needed both hands to take these photos, you see).

Eventually, though, they stepped through the doors and into the first floor of Kitte, where right away they spotted the mug, which immediately made Mr. Sato’s look tiny by comparison.

Really, this giant mug was big enough to be a small home, and sure enough, you can actually go inside. It’s part of the Starbucks Window promotional event celebrating the introduction of Starbucks Coffee capsules for Nestlé’s Dolce Gusto instant coffee machine.

During the promotion, visitors can enjoy a complimentary sample of Starbucks Dolce Gusto coffee while sitting inside the giant mug, and Mr. Sato figured that since he’d come all the way here, he might as well enjoy a cup of caramel macchiato. But while he was thankful for the hospitality, he was disappointed when the attendants handed him his drink in a regular, scaled-to-human-hands paper cup. Granted, that’s a perfectly reasonable thing for them to do, but Mr. Sato, as you’re well aware, is not a reasonable man.

So he did the only non-sensible thing to do and poured the contents of the cup into his Big Logo Mug.

Due to the size difference, the full paper cup of coffee was only enough to moisten the bottom of Mr. Sato’s Big Logo Mug. This would make drinking it a test of his athleticism, but as a highly trained competition-level pole dancer (seriously), he figured he was up to the task.

But while his body responded well to the physical challenge, there turned out to be a mental one as well. The Big Logo Mug is so big that not only do you have to tilt it to a scandalous degree in order to drink from it, you also need sustained mental focus and patience as you wait for the liquid to traverse the ceramic expanse between the bottom of the cup and your lips.

▼ Almost…

But hey, coffee is a drink you’re supposed to relax and take your time with, right?

The Starbucks Window promotion continues until December 5, around which time we expect Mr. Sato to finally be finishing his drink.

Event information
Starbucks Window / スターバックスの窓体験イベント
Venue: Kitte 1st floor atrium / KITTE1階アトリウム
Address: Tokyo-to, Chiyoda-ku, Marunouchi 2-7-2
東京都千代田区丸の内2-7-2
November 26-December 5
Open 11 a.m.-6 p.m.
Website (Kitte)

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