I’m not a huge coffee drinker, nor a big fan a Starbucks when I do want one, but occasionally I find myself there, maybe once every three months or so.
I canNOT bring myself to call a small coffee a “tall” and I definitely can’t say “venti”
I always just say small, medium or large and the counter person seems to be able to handle it.
I heard a bit on Prairie Home Companion last weekend where the waiter kept trying to get Garrison Keilor to say “venti” and he kept avoiding it and I had to laugh out loud.
I’m not sure if I’ve ever patronised Starbucks, but there are a number of other coffee house chains around the place; one of them (I can’t recall which) has reversed size terms; ‘regular’ is their biggest cup - a sneaky way of tricking people into buying the more expensive one.
Meh. I used to order just a small, medium or large, just to show Starbucks who was boss. Then I realized that was pretty lame, especially since tall and grande have become the standard terminology in nearly every coffeehouse in the country. So now I just use their terms. Seems easier for everyone. Now Coldstone is a different story…I refuse to use their terms because those are truly ridiculous.
I’m trying to remember Coldstone terms - assuming of course you mean Cold Stone creamery… did they have silly terms? (I miss their ice cream in the worst way)
It is very old hat to be pissed off by this. Yet I am. My own particular pissed off slant is that they use Italian sounding sizing. Nowhere in Italy does coffee come in big buckets. It comes in cup sized real cups of either espresso or cappuccino size. I once ordered a double espresso in Italy and they nearly fell over in the restaurant, though after some looking they found me a nice double-espresso-sized cup. But I’d say that would be the absolute limit to their size variation. Okay, if Americans want to do it differently that’s fine by me but stop this let’s pretend it’s Italian thing, please.
I also eschew cutesie names, regardless of venue. Then I also question the propriety of size names in fast food restaurants: “I’ll have a small drink, please…no, what’s that? 20 ounces? I mean small… what’s the smallest cup you have? Sure, the kid’s one is fine.”
When did 20 ounces become “small”? When I was a kid that would have been larger than the largest bottle of soda pop you could buy to drink.
Unless you were just being humorous, 20 ounces is their “large”, aka “venti.” (Italian for 20.) And like Pookah mentioned, not only do Italians not have gigantic cups of coffee, last time I was there - several years ago, admittedly - they didn’t even have coffee to go. So yeah, the seeming pretention at Italian-style coffee service is a bit annoying.
I get something from Starbucks maybe 4 times a year, but that’s only because I’m not a big coffee drinker and don’t really get coffee anywhere else that much, either. If I’m confused about size names (I need new glasses and noticed that part of the menu is a bit tiny) I’ll just say “small,” but I no longer avoid using the terms out of sheer annoyance. After all, it’s not the employees’ doing, it’s a corporate decision, and if I can make their day a little bit easier instead of acting like a coffee snob to them, that’s a good thing.
There’s no Starbucks around here, but the local bagel shop has switched to the stupid names. I have to admit, I get great loads of evil pleasure when I order a “large”, get a “small” and give it back to them and point at the large cup I wanted.
Yes, I know I’m supposed to order a grande or venti or some other horrible name, but I refuse to give in to the idiocy of redefining normal words. “Large” indicates the biggest size. It’s descriptive. Throw this small thing away and bring me a vat o’ coffee.
Burger King is the one that pisses me off. I order a small fries and they say, “we don’t have small…only medium and large”, at which point I always have to say, “Give me an “11”.”
I just say the silly faux-Italian names, because I figure the poor wage-slave behind the counter will get shitcanned if he doesn’t use the faux-Italian names. Why make it difficult or embarrassing for someone else to do their job when I’m going to get the same cup of coffee either way?
(setting aside, of course, the possibility of unknowingly receiving a dollop of spit in your half-double-twist-whatever).
Except “Tall” is NOT small for starbucks… there are two sizes smaller (dopio) and “Short”. Tall, grande, and venti are just the three most popular sizes.
