Following tradition, Starbucks releases red cup for holidays

NEW YORK — If this year’s Starbucks holiday cup wasn’t red enough, the chain is releasing another one this week that’s mostly that color.

The new cup, in stores for a limited time, has a white heart in the middle and an illustration of two hands making a heart shape.

The holiday cup released earlier this month was mostly white, and Starbucks encouraged customers to color in the designs themselves.

Holiday cups have been released since 1997. They regularly draw praise and criticism on social media, once even spurring a boycott call from then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Starbucks Corp. says the new cup celebrates “the good in each other.” Last year, before the regular holiday cup, it released a green version that it called “a symbol of unity.”