The Mysterious Starbuck’s “Shorty”
I went to starbucks once and a friend ordered a short cappuccino. I was bewildered…the cup was smaller than any Starbucks coffee I’d ever seen. The “short” size is not even on the menu! Was I dreaming? No. The “short” size is actually very hush-hush, but why?
The drink in question is the elusive “short cappuccino”—at 8 ounces, a third smaller than the smallest size on the official menu, the “tall,” and dwarfed by what Starbucks calls the “customer-preferred” size, the “Venti,” which weighs in at 20 ounces and more than 200 calories before you add the sugar.
The difficulty is that if some of your products are cheap, you may lose money from customers who would willingly have paid more. So, businesses try to discourage their more lavish customers from trading down by making their cheap products look or sound unattractive, or, in the case of Starbucks, making the cheap product invisible.
The short size actually gives you a better quality coffee than the tall, grande, or venti:
The problem with large cappuccinos is that it’s impossible to make the fine-bubbled milk froth (”microfoam,” in the lingo) in large quantities, no matter how skilled the barista. A 20-ounce cappuccino is an oxymoron.
Read the rest of the article from Slate on MSN to get a better idea of the motivation behind keeping this product so secret.
Cafe Mense: Central West End, St. Louis
Oh my goodness, I think this is my new coffee shop. At first, I thought I liked Starbucks or the Coffee Cartel, but this place was “eccelenté!”(as the Italians say).
I stopped in for a quick one before they closed one night. The person running the shop was very friendly, and the atmosphere was laid back and established; it didn’t feel like a livestock show, like Starbucks normally does. Starbucks is usually so crowded and busy that their system feels almost robotic (the Cartel is not much better). However, this place was very friendly and cozy.
This place also serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. I have not yet had their food, but I have had their coffee. It was great! I enjoyed that cup of coffee more than any other commercially served cup of coffee I have ever had (it was a hazelnut latte).
They don’t have as extensive a selection as Starbucks or the Cartel, but man alive, it was good. Their prices are pretty comperable to the other outfits: about $3.25 for a large flavored latte (that is about as expensive as they come though).
It is just north of forest park (off of Lindell) on Union at the corner of Union and Pershing. The address is:
Cafe Mense
275 Union Blvd
St Louis, MO
If you live in St. Louis, it would be a shame for you to miss this cup of coffee. Enjoy!
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