Your Complete Guide To Starbucks' Coffee Sizes

You can't talk about coffee without talking about Starbucks. Whether you love the company or hate it, Starbucks has made a name for itself when talking about one of the world's most popular caffeine sources. Their story began in the early 1970s in Seattle with three friends who wanted to create a place that served fantastic dark-roasted coffee. They tried a few names on for size, but ultimately, they went with Starbucks, which was based on a character from "Moby Dick."

In the 1980s, New Yorker Howard Schultz joined the Starbucks team and was part of the team that first tested espresso at Starbucks but he left the company after a few years. In the interim, he founded Il Giornale, which was a love letter to the coffee bars of Milan, Italy, and featured Italian coffee sizing with short, tall, and grande. Two years after that in 1987, Starbucks was acquired by Il Giornale to become what we know today as the Starbucks Coffee Company.

Since then the brand has taken off, not only across the United States but becoming a worldwide phenomena. As of late 2024, there are over 40,000 locations around the globe with six special Starbucks Reserve Roasteries in key cities. But despite Starbucks' popularity, there can still be some confusion about their coffee sizes. Here's what you should know about Starbucks' sizes, from espresso shots to their 31-ounce trenta.

Espresso isn't a specific type of coffee bean (though it's made traditionally with darker roasts) nor a type of blend. Rather, it's the process of forcing very hot water under high pressure through finely ground coffee beans. The result is a highly concentrated form of coffee, and for many, it's the purest form of coffee. Distilling coffee into its most concentrated forms has been around for centuries, but Italian inventor Angelo Moriondo invented the espresso machine to accelerate coffee production and save workers time on their breaks.

The first Starbucks espresso bar opened in 1984 under Schultz's tutelage and today, its espresso is known for a full-bodied flavor with rich undertones of caramel. At Starbucks, espresso shots come in four sizes. The company's solo espresso shot is a single shot of 0.75 fluid ounces, enough to fill a typical shot glass. The doppio, triple, and quad espresso shots are a double, triple, or quadruple shot coming in at 1.5, 2.25, and 3 fluid ounces respectively.

Demitasse is a French word that means "half-cup," and is the origin for the word demi used in the context of coffee drinks. It's half the size of a normal coffee cup and holds about 2 to 3 fluid ounces and is used to serve things like espresso or other highly concentrated coffees like Turkish or Greek coffee. Its origins can be dated back to the 18th century in France, but coffee has a rich global history and plenty of cultures have enjoyed the idea of finding pleasure in the purity of coffee.

It's the smallest size that Starbucks serves, and usually is used for solo or doppio espresso shots, aligning with the tradition of leaning into the simplicity of coffee. If you're wanting a particularly small cup of coffee for whatever reason, you still shouldn't order a demi as it's really meant only for espresso — and not for cold drinks at all. There are other size options better suited to your needs.

A short at Starbucks is 8 ounces and is one of the original three sizes that the stores had during their initial few decades including tall and grande. A holdover from the Il Giornale days, the short is a size for select beverages and is often not found on the signage at physical locations. However, you can easily find it on the app or online. Just like the demi, a short is only available for hot drinks. Why? Well, with cold drinks there's the matter of ice and the volume it takes up in a cup.

You can order plenty of hot coffees in the size — which will include around one shot of espresso — like the caffè americano, pistachio latte, flat white, or Starbucks Blonde Vanilla Latte. But as with any shop or restaurant, you'll want to check local availability to ensure that the beverage and the size you're looking for are available for purchase.

For decades, first-time Starbucks customers have been thrown off by some of the size names — especially the tall. The tall at Starbucks holds 12 ounces and can be ordered for either hot or cold beverages. When ordering, this is what's considered to be a "small," which has certainly perplexed many Starbucks newbies. If your drink has milk, such as a latte, then your tall will have about one shot of espresso in it. If you want something with more caffeine, your best bet is to order an americano which will have two or so shots in a tall (though you can always order more).

When getting into the topic of cold drinks at a coffee shop there becomes the question of whether there's too much ice and not enough coffee. Assume that when ordering a cold brew or iced coffee that there will be less than 12 actual ounces of coffee in your drink to account for the ice that's used to chill your drink. Starbucks welcomes customers to order light ice or no ice at all in their drinks, just be sure to ask.

The grande at Starbucks is a "medium" of sorts and again is available for hot or cold drinks. Though grande literally means "big" in both Italian and Spanish and can be loosely translated to "large," it is not in fact the largest size that Starbucks carries. Grande cups can hold 16 fluid ounces and most coffee drinks in this size will have two shots of espresso.  If you are looking for a little more caffeine but do not want a bigger drink, Starbucks' caffè americanos and shaken espresso drinks are made with one more shot of espresso than what is typical for the size. So for a grande americano, expect three shots of espresso in your drink.

For most, the grande might be the most manageable drink size — especially for those ordering hot coffee. If you're ever uncertain about which size of drink best suits your needs, just ask a Starbucks barista to point you in the right direction.

If you know Italian — or can at least count to 20 — then you know that the venti at Starbucks is a literal translation of how many ounces the cup can hold. Well, the hot cup, that is: A hot venti is 20 fluid ounces, but a cold venti is 24 fluid ounces. Again, the cold drinks have to take ice into account. Most hot venti espresso-based drinks have two shots of espresso, whereas an iced venti typically has three shots. However, a venti americano, which is one of the most caffeinated drinks on the Starbucks menu, has four shots of espresso. That's around 300 milligrams of caffeine; Mayo Clinic advises no more than 400 milligrams of caffeine a day. (It's probably for the best that Starbucks doesn't offer its nitro cold brew in the venti size.)

Beyond coffee, the venti size is actually quite big. For context, 20 ounces is the same as 2.5 cups of liquid which can not only be quite cumbersome to tote around if you're on the go, but is actually quite close to the limit of the human stomach. The average stomach holds around 34 to 50 ounces of food and liquid.

That brings us to the trenta, which comes in at a whopping 31 fluid ounces. Trenta, which is the Italian word for "30," is available for many of the cold drinks that the company offers. But there are some exceptions: The trenta is only available for certain drinks. For starters, Starbucks does not offer any hot drinks in trenta cups. What's more, many of the espresso-based beverages, such as a specialty iced latte, do not come in the trenta size. And no, you cannot get a Frappuccino in a trenta cup, either. (It's probably for the best given the caffeine and sugar content that would be in a Frappuccino of that size.)

However, the trenta can be great for any of the Starbucks Refreshers, the iced teas, the iced coffee, or the cold brew. If you get them with little or no ice, they can be saved in the refrigerator for regular sips here and there over the span of a day or so.