# Do you avoid using Starbucks' silly size names? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 26, 2006, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-using-starbucks-silly-size-names/341681 "2006-01-26T11:40:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AndyPolley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/54ee81/32.png) [@AndyPolley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndyPolley)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-using-starbucks-silly-size-names/341681/21 "2006-01-26T15:15:37Z")
Of course I do. When entering a Starbucks, I have already given into the fact that I’m a conformist…When in Starbucks, speak as the barista does. “Yes, I’ll have a Venti non-fat latte please.” Of course, I liked it better when I could get a big ol’ cafe latte at the privatley owned, pleasant coffee house in town, where the folks making my beverage were fine with terms like ‘large’ and ‘skim milk’ but alas…those days are no more. It’s either give up espresso coffee, travel great distances for it, or go to Starbucks. That is, untill I get my own espresso machine. Then the sky is the freakin’ limit baby! When that day comes, you’re all invited to my place and you can have a cup of whatever you like. They’ll never put sambucca in their coffee at Starbuck’s. ::Sigh:: ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-using-starbucks-silly-size-names/341681/22 "2006-01-26T15:19:09Z")
> [@clnilsen](#): > > 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. I thought they just used the short cup for the espressos. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingDragonFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c89c15/32.png) [@FlyingDragonFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingDragonFan)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-using-starbucks-silly-size-names/341681/23 "2006-01-26T15:41:00Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > 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”.” Bwaaahaaahaaaaaaaa! ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-using-starbucks-silly-size-names/341681/24 "2006-01-26T15:46:00Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > 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”.” Okay, I don’t go to burger king often and I’m completely missing the reference to 11. Someone care to fill me in?? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-using-starbucks-silly-size-names/341681/25 "2006-01-26T16:06:04Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > There’s no Starbucks around here, I think it’s so cool that we have a Doper from Borneo. ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-using-starbucks-silly-size-names/341681/26 "2006-01-26T16:12:48Z")
> [@chrisk](#): > > Okay, I don’t go to burger king often and I’m completely missing the reference to 11. Someone care to fill me in?? Nothing to do with Burger King. It’s a reference to This is Spinal Tap when one of the guys is saying that their band is much louder than other bands because their amps go all the way up to 11, so it’s one louder than ten. Then the interviewer says, why don’t you just relabel it so that 10 is the loudest. The musician just stares at him and says, “It’s one louder.” ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-using-starbucks-silly-size-names/341681/27 "2006-01-26T16:13:57Z")
> [@chrisk](#): > > Okay, I don’t go to burger king often and I’m completely missing the reference to 11. Someone care to fill me in?? From the movie “This Is Spinal Tap.” The one character goes on about how his amp goes to 11. The other amps only go to 10, but his goes to 11. ---
**Author:** ![wheelie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b4bc9f/32.png) [@wheelie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wheelie)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-using-starbucks-silly-size-names/341681/28 "2006-01-26T16:33:10Z")
I don’t go to Starbucks, mainly because the coffee sucks. As to my feelings toward their cutesy size names, I refer you to [Foamy](http://www.scarysquirrel.org/special/movies/foamy/sml1.html) (_probably_ not entirely work-safe). ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-using-starbucks-silly-size-names/341681/29 "2006-01-26T16:48:34Z")
I go there now and then, but I say small/medium/large. Didn’t realise they had the daft names for the sizes until I watched Foamy last year. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-using-starbucks-silly-size-names/341681/30 "2006-01-26T16:52:40Z")
I always ask for small, and get what I want. ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-using-starbucks-silly-size-names/341681/31 "2006-01-26T16:57:42Z")
I go to Peet’s instead, where they still have small, medium, and large. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-using-starbucks-silly-size-names/341681/32 "2006-01-26T16:58:14Z")
if a barista ever pretended to not understand what “small” means, I’m prepared to go into my Jose-Jiminez/Steve Martin/ Latka foreigner routine in which I don’t understand what anything means, taking up time and his/her effort. I think they 'd drop the pretense at that point. ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-using-starbucks-silly-size-names/341681/33 "2006-01-26T18:05:29Z")
It’s amazing what people take the effort to be offended by. I don’t mind the Italian names, mostly because it makes ordering in Japanese easier. Short, tall and grande all have the same (if “katakana-ized”) pronunciations as in English, avoiding the awkwardness of trying to remember which Japanese word for “small” or “large” applies to a disposable coffee cup. Of course, they don’t have the venti cups; I’ve heard two theories for this: 1) the Japanese are not given to such large portions as Westerners (and, in particular, North Americans) are used to, and 2) **v** is difficult for Japanese speakers to pronounce. Personally, I’m inclined to believe the first suggestion, but at least the latter would be an argument against the Starbucks’ taxonomy. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-using-starbucks-silly-size-names/341681/34 "2006-01-26T18:18:07Z")
I think it was **Shirley Ujest** who referred to the two larger Starbucks sizes as “Bladder Buster” and “Up All Night.” ---
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-using-starbucks-silly-size-names/341681/35 "2006-01-26T18:25:01Z")
The lady that works at the Starbucks I go to the most and I have a routine. I’ll say I want a Mocha, she’ll ask what size. I ask, what sizes are available. She recites the sizes, rolling the 'r" in Grrrrande. Then I make up whatever word I feel like making up that day for their biggest size. Today, I will have the Super-Duper. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-using-starbucks-silly-size-names/341681/36 "2006-01-26T18:48:33Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I think it’s so cool that we have a Doper from Borneo. 'tis true! Well, kind of true. It was fully true up until about a year ago, when the university contracted with Starbucks to run a coffee shop. But it’s waaaaay deep in the university learning center, there’s no storefront, and if you really wanted to go there you’d have to park a fifteen minute walk away. It really caters only to university students. The easily-accessible coffee shop in the heart of downtown is a family owned & run hippy place where they roast their own beans. It’s excellent. And when I order a “large” I get the biggest size they have. ---
**Author:** ![carlotta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@carlotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlotta)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-using-starbucks-silly-size-names/341681/37 "2006-01-26T18:59:15Z")
I just want to clarify that I don’t say small/medium/large to make the counter person’s life hard or to be snobby with them. I’ve never had a job in any category other than “wage slave” It just makes me feel incredibly stupid to say tall/grande/venti. I can’t do it. ---
**Author:** ![little\_bit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@little\_bit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/little_bit)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-using-starbucks-silly-size-names/341681/38 "2006-01-26T19:07:42Z")
I’m with Foamy on this one. Play [“Small Medium Large”](http://www.illwillpress.com/vault.html) to see what I mean. (It’s in the bottom row 2nd from the right & will be gone in a few weeks.) ---
**Author:** ![little\_bit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@little\_bit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/little_bit)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-using-starbucks-silly-size-names/341681/39 "2006-01-26T19:11:40Z")
The fact that my computer crashed this morning is no excuse for the repeat of information. I swear I didn’t think it would post two hours later. I am sore ashamed. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2006, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-using-starbucks-silly-size-names/341681/40 "2006-01-26T19:12:24Z")
> [@carlotta](#): > > I just want to clarify that I don’t say small/medium/large to make the counter person’s life hard or to be snobby with them. I’ve never had a job in any category other than “wage slave” > > It just makes me feel incredibly stupid to say tall/grande/venti. I can’t do it. They understand perfectly what a "small coffee’ is. If they want to pretend that their company’s stupid names are the only terms they understand, then I get harder to understand. That’s pretty simple. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-using-starbucks-silly-size-names/341681.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-avoid-using-starbucks-silly-size-names/341681.md?page=3)