Description
This classic New York “Anthora” coffee cup is now immortalized in ceramic form. Once a staple of every corner deli, this blue and white Greek motif is quickly disappearing from NYC. Luckily, this durable item is much longer lasting than the old-fashioned paper version. A must-have for every city-living coffee drinker.
How The Anthora Came To Be:
The history of the Anthora starts in the late 1800s with a surge of Greek immigrants to New York City. This demographic shift was followed by a wave of Greek-owned coffee shops and carts springing up across the city, igniting a love of coffee in many.
The Anthora was officially introduced to New York in 1963. Leslie Buck, a Czech-American immigrant designed the first-ever “to-go” coffee cup in an attempt to attract the over 600 Greek-owned coffee shops in NYC. It was a genius marketing decision.
A scrappy, hardworking hustler, Leslie was the best person to introduce this coffee cup to the market. He had survived both Auschwitz and Buchenwald, while his parents and other family members tragically did not. Seeking a new life, he arrived in NYC and Americanized his name from the Czech, Laszlo Büch.
In the early ’60s, Leslie became the director of marketing for Sherri Cup, a leading cup manufacturer. In this role, he designed the iconic coffee cup, for which he is remembered today.
To find product-market fit, Leslie did extensive research on Greek culture before carefully tailoring the cup’s design to thrive in the NYC market. The name “Anthora” is Leslie’s mispronunciation of the Greco-Roman word “amphora” – an ancient container used for carrying liquids (you can see a picture of an amphora on each cup). The blue, white, and gold colors are a tribute to the Greek flag and the font is in Athenian lettering, both chosen to appeal to New York’s Greek population.
In the years after its release, the coffee cup became a New York City Icon. Sales skyrocketed. In 1994 sales hit an all-time high when Sherri sold upwards of 500 million cups. The Anthora began appearing in movies and television shows. In 2003, MOMA designed a ceramic version of the cup .
Full article Behind NYC’s Classic “Anthora” Coffee Cup
https://www.citysignal.com/behind-nycs-classic-anthora-coffee-cup/
Additional Details
- SKU:
- NYCA001
