When it comes to Starbucks Coffee, it's never just a regular cup of Joe but a process that requires you to know the code names (or a bit of Italian) for the company's different sized coffee drinks.
Yet to even seasoned regulars, the mix of Italian and English words that appear across the company's menu seem to bear little resemblance to the actual sizes they represent.
At Starbucks around the world, the options are: short (8 ounces), tall (12 ounces), grande (16), venti (24), and trenta (31).
Originally, Starbucks offered only two sizes: short (8 ounces) and tall (12 ounces). When the company added grande, venti and trenta, they kept the old names for the original drinks
Starbucks currently offer short [8 fl. oz.] (not pictured), tall [12 fl. oz.], far left, grande [16 fl. oz.], far right, and venti hot [20 fl. oz.] center, (and trenta for cold drinks [31 fl. oz]
This designation by the coffee company is considered by many to be a classic instance of corporate language manipulation.
Tall sounds like small but means something close to the opposite - it being one of the smallest sized drinks that can be ordered.
Grande is Italian for 'large,' venti means 'twenty,' and trenta is 'thirty'.
The sizes originated when Howard Schultz, the founder of Starbucks, opened his first coffee shop in Seattle in 1986.
The shop, called Il Giornale, had just three sizes: short, tall, and grande. The much larger venti size was introduced at a later date.
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As time went by, customers started asking for larger sizes. The 'tall' began to be too small, and the 'short' disappeared completely, except if you want an espresso to go
Starbucks founder, Howard Schultz,became captivated with Italian coffee bars and the romance of the coffee experience. He had a vision to bring the Italian coffeehouse tradition to America
According to Starbucks, Schultz 'became captivated with Italian coffee bars and the romance of the coffee experience. He had a vision to bring the Italian coffeehouse tradition to America,' and hewanted distinctive names for the cups that would reflect such a vision.
He used cups in a variety of sizes and gave them atypical names with a couple of words in Italian to make them more distinct.
In her blog, Starbucks Melody,Melody Overton explains how a 'tall' became a small.
The menu boards at Starbucks, for many, many years in the '90s, only had three sizes listed: short, tall, and grande, Overton noted. 'So a short was considered to be a small, tall was medium, and grande was large.'
After the venti sizes was introduced, everything changed. 'When venti was added, short dropped off the menu boards,' Overton says. 'Starbucks decided that there wasn't room for four sizes. So short got the boot and tall became the new short, or small.'
