Here's Why Starbucks Cup Sizes Aren't The Usual Small, Medium, And Large

Starbucks' presentation sets it apart from other chains. But while Starbucks' unique mermaid logo has been with the company since it opened in 1971, its equally iconic cup sizes came a few years later. Starbucks didn't sell brewed coffee until the 1980s (it only sold coffee beans before then). So it wasn't until Howard Schultz purchased the chain in 1987 that Starbucks began offering short, tall, venti, grande, and trenta coffees.

The story behind these unusual names was that Schultz (who first became the director of operations and marketing in 1982) took a trip to Italy and fell in love with the country's coffeehouse culture. As a result, Schultz first pushed for Starbucks to embrace the coffeehouse model in 1985 before founding his own — called Il Giornale — that same year. Il Giornale sold coffee made using Starbucks beans in short, tall, and grande cups. Later, when Schultz purchased Starbucks, he turned it into the coffeehouse chain we know today and implemented the Italian-inspired names in the process. So, while Starbucks is synonymous with Seattle's coffee culture, its most notable qualities are actually influenced by Italy's best coffeehouses.

Tall and grande were around from the beginning of the Italian naming conventions (same for short, the forgotten Starbucks drink size), but venti didn't arrive for another few years. Rather than debuting at Starbucks in 1987 alongside the other options, venti drinks first appeared in the 1990s when the short size was phased out.

Venti isn't a drink size you'll find in Italian coffeehouses, but its name is still an example of the country's influence on the brand. Venti means 20 in Italian, alluding to the number of ounces the cup contains (for hot drinks, anyway; venti means 24 ounces for cold drinks). Similarly, Starbucks' largest option — which didn't debut in the United States until 2011 — is called trenta, which is Italian for 30 and, you guessed it, holds 30 ounces of liquid.

Beyond the addition of bigger drinks over the decades, a smaller drink size — called the demi — also exists, but differs from the others in its etymology. Demi is short for the French word demitasse, which means half-cup. The name has been used for 3-ounce cups in Italy for over a century, though, so it fits in just fine alongside Starbucks' other size names.