Red is the colour of Christmas – of robins, noses, party dresses and, of course, Starbucks’ holiday cups.

But fans of the coffee company’s stylish designs will be surprised to learn that the first cup wasn’t even really red, but a swirly magenta and lilac combination.

Starbucks issued its first cup in 1997 and only switched to red cups in 1999 after an intense brainstorming process to come up with the perfect shade of ‘holiday red’. Jon Cannell, who was part of the design team at the time, recalls that staff were tasked with bringing in Christmassy items to try and decide on the most ‘joyous’ shade possible. They eventually settled on the bright toffee apple hue that we see today.

Back in October, Stylist did some digging into why exactly the Starbucks cup colour is so easy on the eye. Colour psychologist Angela White told us that the shade of red designers settled on in 1999 was an inspired choice: “The specific shade of red that Starbucks uses is spot-on for the purpose – a rich, warm red that’s not too lurid. It captures and expresses the Christmas spirit perfectly,” she said.

An ex-Starbucks designer just revealed what the first ever red cup looked like