The Starbucks Drink Size Myth That You Have To Stop Believing

There's a myth that's been going around about Starbucks cups. Musician Sueco recently shared a video on TikTok of him pouring the contents of a tall cup (what Starbucks refers to as it's small cup size) into a grande and venti (medium and large), showing them each come full to the brim. The grande actually overflowed. Sueco accused the coffee giant of scamming customers, generating more than 1.5 million likes and nearly 37,000 comments — many of whom fell for the illusion. A few Tiktok users commented that it made sense, saying things like "The smaller the cup the wider so it would make sense." But don't worry, we know it's not actually true.

You'll notice that Sueco never showed that the cups were truly empty prior to pouring the coffee in them. Surely, something had to have been in there or the cups were altered since this assertion has already been debunked. Similar posts from other sources have also been flagged for false information. You can try it yourself next time you're there by filling a tall cup with water and pouring it into the grande, then the venti. When you do, there will be about an inch of empty space at the top of the grande and another at the top of the venti. There's just no way Starbucks would be able to get away with something like that for so long. But, that isn't to say that their cups aren't fooling you in other ways.

Sometimes, it's not the size of the cups that fool you, but the way they fill them. When you get an iced drink, everyone knows you get a lot less of it than you would if it were hot. This can easily be repaired by politely asking the barista to make it with light ice. But, even though hot drinks lack ice, you don't necessarily get more of your pumpkin spice latte when you order a bigger size —  in some cases, all you're going to be getting more milk. However, Starbucks does a good job of regulating this.

The chains' iced drink sizes are slightly larger than the hot ones to accommodate room for the ice. The coffee shop also clearly indicates that a grande latte gets more espresso shots than a tall, but, weirdly, a venti doesn't get more than a grande. While tall latte drinks get one shot of espresso, ventis and grandes get two — and the same thing goes for your iced drinks, too. The extra shot is to balance out the additional milk needed to fill the bigger size. So, if you get a large, don't be surprised if it doesn't taste quite exactly the same. When it comes to ordering coffee, it's what's inside your cup that counts. Knowing that, it's always a good idea to ask how many shots come in a latte before you order it.