global icon mugs series
22 April 2018
286th mark (at Parañaque city)

From coffee to mugs
14 March 2014 (updated 05 July 2018)

Coffee has become one of my leisure drink, past time drink, and required drink while working. I have learned to take coffee (in fact black instant coffee), way back in 1993, when I was grade 3. This is the reason why during the homeroom class (first period of the day in school), my teacher was getting infuriated at me for observing me having this regular "ma'am-may-i-go-out" routine. Up until today, coffee remains one of the vital inputs I need on a regular basis. 

I started collecting these "city mugs" [in the old nomenclature] or now known as the "global icon mugs" way back 2010.

But just a disclaimer: I rarely travel (in fact, my first trip outside the Philippines was a school-sponsored trip to Jakarta, Indonesia). I am just very thankful to supportive friends who have helped me build this collection.

Another disclaimer [as commented by my former student ]: hindi po ako nakatira sa Starbucks. I have been a fan of Starbucks ever since the world begna. Oh well, it opened its first store in Manila in 1997, December. My first encounter with frappucino was in 2000 (I was a sophomore then at UP Los Baños), in Starbucks, Glorietta 3 (trivia: it was only in 2018 that they renovated the interior, one of the earliest stores but with a later interior renovation). It was sad that i was not able to take pictures of the interior, which was constant for the last 20 years.

As of 14 march 2014, the 300th mark was reached. This collection is not yet complete, new mugs continue to surface, despite rumors that this will be replaced by the "you are here mugs" (or the YAH mugs) which is available in the United States and Canada, and the "relief mugs" which are to be found in a number of major cities around the world (and these relief mugs come in limited Christmas 2013 edition, and recently demitasse relief mugs were also released in certain cities). And this list grows as months pass by.

Just the same, i decided to concentrate and collect only global icon mugs (which started in 2008). I do have some others--some are from friends, some are selected--and they also add to the mug collection. But global icons is the priority, even if a number of mugs in this series are not anymore on circulation (which makes the collection more difficult but somehow rewarding, in some sense).

Much of my collection were already transferred to Parañaque city; only some few articles are left in Quezon city.

First mug
30 December 2010
SM Baguio (photo by Martha Españo)

The "veteran mugs"
(a.k.a. assorted non-icon mugs)
05 July 2018
at Quezon City

Universitas Indonesia Central Library
12 November 2013
while waiting for the student delegates, i am preparing my lectures for Philippine economic history (photo by Jeff Mecitas)

some photos from home in Quezon City (below) before 2017
I am really thankful for all the help of my dearest friends, colleagues, and the whole wide world