Just What Are Starbucks Drink Sizes

Starbucks has invented a language for ordering coffee that only its acolytes truly know.

Forgoing the typical small, medium and large format, you have tall, grande, and venti.

But what do those sizes actually mean? How much coffee, and by that note, caffeine, are you ingesting with each cup of Joe?
A tall is 12 ounces, while a grande gives you 16. A venti hot is 20 ounces, adding 4 more if the drink is cold. While trenta means 30 in Italian, the chain throws in an extra ounce on their super-sized cup.

Since grande means large, would that make tall, medium? You'd be correct. There's a small and it's called a short. You just have to ask for it by name, which delivers 8 ounces of the energy-boosting elixir.