Starbucks, which this year turned 40, marked the anniversary by updating both its logo (remember, the siren has been living without a circle around her for almost a year) and revamping the packaging. In October, the coffee giant optimized its range by dividing it into categories by roast to help consumers choose the right one—Blonde, Medium or Dark—quickly.

Photo: Starbucks new packaging as of 2011, www.blogs.starbucks.com

The new bags not only got a new name and palette—yellow, orange and purple (the colour mark relates to the roast intensity)—but they also feature original artwork, which highlights the coffee’s character in a new way. The design is based on the previous visual elements, so consumers will not get confused by the new look of the bags when choosing their much-loved coffee variety.

“The original coffee bag art lives on in updated icons that not only make it easy to navigate among the other bags, but are direct descendants of some of the original stamp art seen on our bags for many years. Yes, the Sumatra tiger is still a tiger and the smiling sun on Breakfast Blend is still the same. But if you look closely at these coffee icons, you see echoes of the past versions in each of them,” says Jeff Wilkson, Senior Designer at Starbucks Coffee, on the company’s blog. The new white bags, which replaced the previous ones featuring a colourful and big—half-bag—artwork in the bottom, will arrive in stores across the U.S., by mid-February.

Photo: Starbucks old packaging of Breakfast Blend and Sumatra, www.starbucks.com

Still, some consumers doubt that this is a smart move. “Stop ‘dumbing down’ Sbux coffee. Most of us…especially those of us who feel we helped make Sbux what it, eventually, became….don’t need to be told if something is DARK or not and we don’t need color-coding. I really believe it was more clear to most people when it just referenced BOLD, X-BOLD, Medium etc. I’ve seen confusion over the new labeling….people thinking it’s not the same coffee. If this was one of Sbux best $$$ quarters ever, why the need for all the price increases and unnecessary changes? I’m thinking (along with MANY people I know) that Sbux did ‘sell their soul’. Sad,” the user under the Betterbefore nickname wrote below the post, giving feedback about the update, and most of those who commented agreed with this point. Anyway, Starbucks doesn’t seem to halt the redesign wave, and brand’s fans will have to either ‘love it or leave it.’

To both of the ‘camps’ Starbucks says ‘Let’s Merry! ‘this holiday season.