Schultz returned to Milan in 2018 to open the first Starbucks in Italy. First of all, here are the size options you can find at Starbucks: tall (12 ounces), grande (16), venti (24), and trenta (31). (Did you know? The trenta actually comes in at 31 ounces, and can only be used for for iced beverages.) Why not follow this logic and apply names that are evocative of English terms to the remaining two sizes? The less-familiar venti and trenta may help consumers forget the cost-or calorie count-of what they are about to drink. Grande is Italian for “ large,” venti means “twenty,” and trenta is “thirty.” Why isn’t the 16-ounce size sedici (Italian for “sixteen”) instead? Perhaps because grande conjures associations with the English grand. Schultz traveled to Italy for the first time in 1983 and fell in love with the “the romance and theater of coffee,” according to the Starbucks website. Small in Starbucks refers to the cup size that consists of 8. But let’s face it, “I’d like a short” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as the sizes based in Italian do. Demi is a French term referring to a half-cup. Little-known fact: the size is still available. When venti came along (to meet popular demand), Schultz dropped the short so as not to crowd the menu boards. Interestingly, the tall was not always the smallest drink size-and customers who requested ever-larger drinks may be partially responsible for its name.Īt his first coffeehouse, Il Giornale, Starbucks founder Howard Schultz offered three sizes: short (8 ounces), tall, and grande.

The result arguably encourages a consumer to think a little less about the size of his or her beverage as well as the size of the bill. Tall sounds like small but means something close to the opposite. This designation by the coffee company is considered by many to be a classic instance of corporate language manipulation. What are the cup sizes at Starbucks Short (8 oz.) Tall (12 oz.) Grande (16 oz.) Venti Hot (20 oz.) Venti Cold (24 oz.) Trenta (30 oz.) Starbucks sizes. Case in point: how many times have you or a friend said, “I’d like a venti latte” without pausing to consider what venti actually means? Why is a tall … so small?įirst of all, here are the size options you can find at Starbucks: tall (12 ounces), grande (16), venti (24), and trenta (31). While iced coffee and brewed coffee may not differ much, other Starbucks drinks can be very different by size.When you reflect on all the symbols, gestures, and phrases that bombard your everyday existence, you may find a panoply of simple words that are missing a definition. The cup size can impact the drink recipe in different ways, as can whether you’re ordering hot coffee or a cold beverage. Cold venti drinks are actually 24 ounces, to account for iceīut there’s more to the cup sizes than just how big they are.You may even occasionally see the size “demi” listed.įor the basic idea, Starbucks drink sizes shake out to the following volumes: Instead, they use chain-specific terms, some based in Italian: short, tall, grande, venti, trenta. The first time you visit a Starbucks, one aspect that may jump out at you right away is that the coffee shop chain doesn’t use the standard small, medium, large sizing for its drinks.