I usually brew my own and take a cuppa with me for my commute, but decided instead to patronize Starbucks today (ok, I admit we’ve run out of coffee at home). So, I’ve got two $20s, a $10 and two ones in my wallet (perfect - there’s something about breaking a $20 to buy a cuppa coffee that just rubs me the wrong way). But now I’m faced with a dillemma. I have a general sense of the coffee names, but not the sizes, and I want the $2 coffee. Panic began to take hold as I realized the coffee size display I recall using as a guide was inexplicably absent. Would I make a fool of myself in front of the sexy Barrista and the aloof SUV Commanders in my midst?
Which one? Venti? Nova? Supra?
I guessed Venti, and (I’m proud to say), I guessed correctly.
For years, the rumors have been swirling that one day we would have a Starbucks in Egypt. Well, now we do, although it is far away from where I live so I haven’t ordered from it yet.
I must visit and see what they call their coffee sizes. Meanwhile, congrats on choosing well.
Congrats to succeeding in buying the right size for you.
I rarely visit Starbucks anymore. Somehow, now that I’ve acquired a taste for coffee, I can’t drink their stuff with coffee in it (that hasn’t been sweetened to death) because all I can taste is the burned flavor that is uncommon in just about every other coffee I’ve tried since finding a liking for coffee. Their foofy “not quite related to coffee” drinks can be delicious and fattening, though. Mmmm.
I don’t go to Starbucks much, but I find “middle-sized” is always the one between the largest and the smallest. “Smallest” is always the smallest. I’ve never had a problem with those.
Apparently, although they don’t tell you this, you can order a ‘short’ version too, although publicly, the smallest available version is the ‘tall’. There was an article about this in Slate a while ago, and how this makes for a better cappuccino.
Ya know, I find myself in a Starbucks quite often these days (being a convenient place to meet new clients), and, like others, I have never ever been met with any sort of confusion when I use the standard small/medium/large nomenclature.
As for Starbuck’s hating, I used to look down my nose at them, but now, I actually don’t mind Starbuck’s. Sure, their coffee tastes burnt, but they’ve always been accommodating and convenient, never kicking me out of their stores for using them to conduct business (it’s occasionally happened that nobody even ordered anything at the table). Add to that the fact they pay their employees decently for the job and offer health care (!) if you work 20 hours or more (!), and I find it hard to dislike them.
In Korea the sizes are short, tall, and grande. I nearly fainted the first time I saw a venti here in the US. If I had that much coffee at once I’d be shaking for a week.
Here in NYC, I think a Venti cup of coffee (you know, just plain old coffee) is about $2 before tax.
I really stumped a cashier ordering a “Short” coffee one time. It definitely exists, the cups are there, but don’t count on your cashier to have been trained to serve it.
And I ditto you. I think the sizing is stupid and there is a certain “Borg” feeling to the whole Starbucks experience, but it was the non-fat chai lattes that led to my personal assimilation. “Tall non-fat chai and a molasses cookie please!” Man, I wish I had that right now.
And I say where is this mysterious $4 cup of regular Starbuck’s coffee? I’ve heard so much about it, though I’ve yet to find any evidence of such a thing. As elusive as the Bigfoot and Yeti, it is. I’ve posted in a Straight Dope thread about this before, yet nobody responded…I wonder why.
I just called the Starbuck’s in Fisherman’s Wharf and it’s $1.80 for a Venti coffee, which fits with my experience. The Starbuck’s down the street here in Chicago is $1.90 with tax for the venti.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen prices much about $2 for a venti. In fact, I only remember prices in the twos for a Starbucks coffee in airports.
points upthreadgotpasswords lives in San Francisco, “Around here, there’s a reason they’re known as Fourbucks,” sayeth he.
I think the names of the sizes are dumb, too, but every time I go there, there’s a menu and I just look at it and choose the one I want. Smallest, mediumest, or largest. It’s all plainly marked and I’ve never gotten any attitude.
I just ask for a “small,” “medium,” or “large” myself. Occasionally they will correct me, or make a point of calling back a “grande” or whatever the heck they want to call it.
I did have one guy who said, "You mean a “grande”? I replied, “No, a ‘medium.’ As in bigger than your ‘small’ size and smaller than your ‘large’ size.”
I have also never seen their regular drip coffee cost any more than $2.00. That includes various locations around the U.S., including airports. Around here, Starbucks is actually cheaper than Dunkin’ Donuts coffee.
I always get a kick out of people who comment that they would never spend $4 on a cup of coffee (as I stand there with my Starbucks cup). I generally reply, “I don’t know what you’re talking about–I paid $1.70 for this.”
I think the $4 coffee problem comes from a broader use of the word “coffee”.
Seeing as how starbucks sells mainly espresso drinks, but is still a coffee place, people start calling all the drinks they serve coffee. I wouldn’t call a mocha “espresso”, espresso by itself is a specific drink, but I would call a mocha “coffee”. Since the beans are called coffee beans, it makes sence to call whatever they get used in coffee. Maybe we need a more specific term for drip coffee…
A Venti mocha does cost $4 (or almost, anyways)
On that vein, for all the people saying Starbucks’ coffee tastes burnt, do you mean their drip coffee or all their coffee? Cause I’ve never had anything burnt tasting there, but I’ve nevr had drip coffee there. That’s not what they do
