Starbucks Sizes: All you need to know about Starbucks Drink sizes, number of espresso shots, and delicious syrup pumps.

Starbucks is everywhere, if you live in a big city chances are you walked by 2 of them on your way to work. But what’s the deal with the Starbucks sizes? What are the actual sizes of Starbucks drinks? Is there a difference between cold and hot drinks? You have a final coming up and need the max amount of espresso for the best prices, so what do you order? Or if you’re watching your sugar intake, you’ll also want to know how many pumps of syrup are heading your way when you down that delicious iced cold caramel macchiato with extra caramel drizzle (Enjoy that guilty pleasure, you deserved it!)

If any of these questions have struck your mind while staring at the engulfing menu at Starbucks, rest assured you’re not alone and we have answers to demist the Starbucks menu when ordering! We made sure to uncover the various sizes of drinks at Starbucks, and spoiler alert Trenta is unfortunately not offered for all drinks (cries internally). We also made sure to check on how many espresso shots are in the various coffee drinks at Starbucks, as well as the number of delicious syrup pumps in the various drink options at Starbucks.

The last thing you want is a sugar high and caffeine crash midway through the day 😟. Last but not least, we go over helpful tips for ordering at Starbucks, especially when you are adjusting syrups, liquid content, espresso shots, and the amount of ice in a drink. It can lead to an insanely nasty drink, and we don’t want you wasting $7 on a gross drink.

All you need to know about the various Starbucks Sizes: Cold Drinks, Hot drinks, coffees, cold brews, and more!

Starbucks sizes short, tall, grande, venti
Copyright Sndr via canva.com

The History of Starbucks drink sizes and its changing cup sizes

Starbucks may have originated in Seattle Washington, where you can find the original Starbucks cafe still standing strong and filled with swarming visitors from around the world. But despite its American roots, the iconic coffee chain came to be because of Italian influences when the creator visited Milan Italy in 1983 and was inspired to bring back with him Italian touches he had seen in the beautiful romantic country.

With these Italian swatches, he implemented Italian words to describe the larger sizes such as grande, venti, and trenta. If you’re familiar with Spanish, French, Italian, or Portuguese you’ll instantly recognize these terms and be able to order easily. However, for the many who do not have a clue what a grande is, continue reading on =)

Original Line Up Of Sizes:

Short – You’ll recognize this small 8 oz cup as being the typical small

Tall – Back in the earlier days less was more and this tall 12 oz drink size was the medium size at Starbucks until demand created the bigger need for larger sizes

Grande – Since grande literally means large in Italian, you’d be wise to assume this was the large version of the typical coffee drink back when the shop was first running.

Matching American Demand for bigger is better: The increase in Starbucks Sizes

X-Small, Small, Medium, and Large, Plus X-Large

Short – This smaller cup actually got the boot for a minute when they introduced the larger venti size 😆

Tall – With the Short getting kicked to the curb, the tall became the new small

Grande – With tall becoming the new small size cup, the grande became the new medium. This doesn’t make any sense but hey it’s working for Starbucks so they must know what they are doing.

Venti – The newly introduced venti cup was brought into fruition back in the 90s

Trenta – Behold the behemoth of Starbucks drinks and the newest Starbucks size: the gigantic Trenta option holds a massive 30 oz of cold beverages and was introduced in the late 2010s as noted by Erin from Serious Eats, due to popular demand from Americans for yet again another size increase from Starbucks. I mean who can blame them, that guava iced tea they were rocking was phenomenal and if we could we would order 2 gallons 😆.

Starbucks hot drink with piece of cake
Copyright @ stetsik via depositphotos.com

Starbucks Cup Sizes: Hot Drinks and Hot

Short Cup- 8 oz

Tall Cup- 12 oz

Grande Cup – 16 oz

Venti Cup – 20 oz

What Starbucks Size Do I get for espresso?

What if I just want a shot of espresso?

You would think they would serve something as small as a shot of expresso in their sample size cup, but they don’t for whatever reason. They instead serve all sizes of espresso in the next size up the short size cup aka the small cup.

Doppio aka two shots? – Short size cup fits this double shot perfectly

Trente aka three shots? – Short size cup

Quad Shot aka 4 shots? – Short size cup

What is the kid’s size cup at Starbucks?

Short or Tall

The kid’s size cup at Starbucks is actually just a short cup. We have noticed that parents like to get drinks on the smaller side. This could be for a number of reasons such as less mess in the car if they spill it, less sugar content, lower caffeine content, and reduced cost. Whatever the reason, we suggest also choosing either a short or tall size hot beverage for your child.

small Starbucks cup size with plant on table
Copyright @ Datenschutz-Stockfoto via depositphotos.com

What Starbucks size cup is used for Puppuchinos?

3 oz demi cup

Who said dogs can’t have Starbucks? Well, we dont think anyone did, but if you were thinking about it, think again! pups get hot too and also deserve delicious Starbucks drinks like the rest of us, which is why the infamous puppachino is served by Starbucks and other coffee shops around the globe. However, it is really just a bunch of whipped cream. So we are glad that Starbucks capped the size for puppachinos to the tiny sample size version called a demi cup, which holds 3oz.

Starbucks Samples: What size cup does Starbucks use?

3 oz demi cup

You guessed it! the sample size cup is that super cute and tiny baby Starbucks cup that is also called the demi cup and holds 3 oz. It’s also what is used for puppachinos.

How many pumps of syrup are in your Starbucks drink?

Part of what makes Starbucks so awesome and delicious is its endless arsenal of craft syrups, toppings, drizzles, and other goodies that we all love to have in our morning brews. However Starbucks is a little too generous when it comes to serving calorie-hefty toppings and syrups, so we wanted to create this guide for you to understand how many pumps come in your Starbucks drink for different sizes!

Starbucks Syrups: How many pumps per Starbucks cup: HOt

Hot Drink: Coffee

Short – 2

Tall – 3

Grande – 4

Venti – 5

Exceptions: Hot Espresso Drinks

  • caramel macchiato – has one less pump per size

Cold Drink: Iced Espresso beverages

Tall – 3

Grande – 4

Venti – 6

Trenta – 4 pumps (only available in ice coffee or cold brew)

Exceptions: Cold Espresso drinks with different amounts of syrup

  • Caramel Macchiato: contains one less pump than the other drinks
  • Cold Brews have 2-3 pumps less than the regular cold espresso drinks

Hot Drinks: Non-espresso

kids & short – 2

Tall – 3

Grande – 4

Venti – 5

Frappuccinos:

tall – 2

grande – 3-4

venti – 4-5

Starbucks drinks sizes: Iced Drinks and Cold Drinks

Starbucks refreshers, Starbucks iced teas, cold brews, iced coffees, iced beverages, frappuccinos, and other cold drinks.

Tall – 12 oz

Grande – 16 oz

Venti – 24 oz

Trenta – 30 oz

What Drinks are offered in the Trenta Size at Starbucks?

Starbucks refreshers

lemonade

iced teas ( not chai latte, matcha tea lemonade, matcha tea latte)

Cold brews (not nitro series)

Iced coffees

What iced drink size should I get at Starbucks for my kid?

We don’t want little jimmy being wired on caffeine (he probably shouldn’t be drinking coffee anyways) but if you’re talking about regular iced drinks then we suggest ordering:

Kids 8 and under – Tall

kids 9 and over – Grande

How many shots of espresso are in each Starbucks drink size?

Starbucks Cup Size Hot Coffee DrinkCold Coffee Drink
Sample Size 11
Short Size 11
Tall Size 11-2*
Grande Size22-3*
Venti Size23-4*
*Keep in mind espresso content varies with different drinks and this is a rough guideline*
side up-close view of different drink sizes at Starbucks
Copyright SNDR via canva.com

Do bigger drinks mean more caffeine? Which Drink Sizes at Starbucks also have higher caffeine portions?

Unfortunately usually not, especially when you look at hot coffee drinks offered at Starbucks. However, that’s a different story with iced drinks, you will see more shots of espresso in this iced variation in relation to their Starbucks cup sizes.

Hot Coffee:

Grande Vs Venti – While the size difference between the two is 4 oz with the grande coming in at 16 oz and the venti being a whopping 20 oz. You’ll notice that the caffeine content between the two is the same! Both Starbucks drinks share the same espresso shot ratio of two shots!

So next time you order a venti and think it’s going to help with waking up, think again. Instead of buying the bigger size, opt for the grande with an extra shot. Youll save calories with unwanted filler creamer and sugar and get the much-needed espresso you crave.

Iced Coffee:

Grande vs Venti – The size difference between the two is 8 oz, we aren’t sure why Starbucks did this since they keep the size difference between the smaller size cups the same when compared to the hot drink versions. However, Starbucks says it’s to accommodate the extra ice that goes in a venti cup 🙄 The good news is you do get an extra shot for the difference, but we do think it should back been 2 extra shots because of the large differences in ounces.

That wraps up our post for all you need to know about the various Starbucks sizes from different drinks sizes between cold and hot. The different amounts of espresso per drink, and how many pumps of syrup per drink.

1 thought on “Starbucks Sizes: All you need to know about Starbucks Drink sizes, number of espresso shots, and delicious syrup pumps.”

Comments are closed.

Skip to content