Starbucks continues to be the most popular and well-recognized coffee shop chain by a very large margin — in 2023, the retailer had 38,038 locations open around the world, per . Even with such a large and dedicated fan base, Starbucks is not immune to customer critique. A few years back, Starbucks came under fire after videos emerged online allegedly proving that all the coffee shop's cup sizes hold the same amount of liquid.
in six sizes: Short (8 oz), Tall (12 oz), Grande (16 oz), Venti Hot (20 oz), Venti Cold (24 oz), and Trenta (30 oz). However, according to various TikTok users, most of these cup sizes hold the same amount of liquid. Many creators shared "findings" that proved that the Tall, Grande, and Venti cups all held roughly the same amount of liquid, and claimed that Starbucks was scamming customers out of their money by charging more for larger sizes.
However, the claims made in these videos have been debunked, and if you look really closely, you can see the camera tricks that made these pouring pranks seem real. One in particular went viral in 2022 after a creator showed that the Tall size held more liquid than the subsequently larger sizes. While the editing is cleverly done to make it appear as though the video was shot all in one take, a careful watch will show that more coffee was added off-camera each time a cup was turned around.
Properly conducted experiments prove that Starbucks isn't scamming anyone with its cup sizes There are a few ways that creator.
