Nate Knows Nada

Short drinks at the ‘Bucks

You can still get drinks at Starbucks that don’t start with a “Tall” as the smallest. Slate tells you how.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, 8 January 2006 at 11:38 am and is filed under Ev'rything But the Sink. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

3 Responses to “Short drinks at the ‘Bucks”

1. pp Says:
   9 January 2006 at 12:47 pm.

   I still order by small, medium, or large. The “baristas” split about 50/50 correcting me or just rolling with it. When you order a small they give you their “tall”. You actually have to say the smallest cup and point to it to not get the tall. By the way ordering a dry cappucino is the equivalent of the small, at least in terms of milk. It ends up tasting like one that actually comes in a china or ceramic mug, on a saucer, rather than stained burnt milk.

2. Janelle Says:
   9 January 2006 at 9:07 pm.

   After my recent stint as a barista, I feel so much more passion for this topic. Fortunately I worked at a place with small, medium, and large. As someone who doesn’t drink coffee enough to be familiar with the names Starbuck’s uses, I felt frustrated when trying to figure out what people meant when they ordered a “tall,” “grande,” etc. I found that about 75% of the time, even when someone ordered a tall (which is a Starbuck’s small), they actually meant “large” and they would get frustrated with me for trying to clarify…just to make sure. Also, I was surprised by how few people actually knew what a cappuccino was supposed to be…probably because most coffee places are actually serving lattes because making quality foam takes a little time.

3. pp Says:
   10 January 2006 at 11:53 am.

   Unfortunately, Starbucks has done for coffee what Charles Shaw has done for wine. For you east coasters Charles Shaw is sold for two dollarsa bottle (thus the moniker) two buck chuck at Trader Joe supermarkets in California. All the sudden everyone is a wine drinker, showing up with two buck chuck to parties and as gifts, while total alkies are just buying the crap by the case. The problem is it is decent enough stuff to pass as wine.
   When I did my stint as a “barista” (there was no such term then) everyone was quite alarmed to find that their iced cappucino only filled half the plastic cup and only had a splash of milk. Then when they asked for it to be filled up I charged them the latte price and oh the drama.