1421 Trenta Trend

In case you haven’t heard, Starbucks has a new size. Seems the Venti wasn’t big enough. And the Grande, well heck, who orders a tiny Grande anymore? I mean, if you can’t make your drink kick over the four-dollar mark, what’s the point of even drinking fancy coffee concoctions?
The new drink size is called the Trenta, so if you write anything about modern culture, add it to your spell-check now. Another Italian sounding word, you say, does it mean anything? Starbucks maintains it means “thirty” and the new cup will hold 31 ounces of fluid. One pull short of a quart.
A likely story. Every since the cautionary tale of consumers suing businesses when things that have actual expectation-based sizes—like large, extra large, gallon, and quart—don’t live up to those expectations, companies have been very careful about how they label things.
Like “economy size” and “family size,” and the great candy designation, “fun size.”
Girls, don’t ever whisper to your guy that he’s a fun size.
I’m just impressed by the inflation built into American fast food culture. Can you say “super-size”? When people first started ordering Grande lattes they seemed mighty big compared to the little cup upon which the original espresso was founded. Grandes were huge.
But like SUVs ‘roiding up to HumVees the Grande soon hulked up to the Venti, and now the Trenta, and the effete epicurean culture of Starbucks morphed with the Herculean culture of fast food.
That’s too kind. Hercules was a hero, this obese offering is more like a Nero.
So does Trenta actually mean thirty? Maybe. I’d be inclined to believe it has a meaning more suited to the convenience store.
Trenta is an Italian word that means Big Gulp.
America, ya gotta love it.