For those who haven’t been schooled in the Starbucks lexicon, a “Tall” coffee is actually a small, with “Grande” and “Venti” signifying medium and large respectively. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, we can deal with the Starbucks in Durham, NC, which apparently still sells Tall beverages — though you wouldn’t know that from its drive-thru menu.

Blogger Ginny Skalski was going to this particular drive-thru the other day to get her latte fix when she noticed that the new menu boards only listed Grande and Venti sizes.

She writes:

In fact, the new menu omits a less expensive Starbucks staples altogether — plain hot Mochas [Ed Note: The menu does include Mocha Frappucinnos, but we’re assuming she means a hot Mocha]. Instead, the newly-designed menu emphasizes the Mocha’s more expensive sugary sisters: The Caramel Macchiato and the seasonal Toffee Mocha. You can still order a tall drink via the Starbucks drive-thru. The new menu offers a concession with the lines: “Looking for something else? Please ask us.”

I also went inside to inquire about the change. An employee told me the change was made Saturday night. The employee worked the drive-thru Sunday morning and said customers kept asking: “Can I still order a tall drink?”

Ginny was savvy enough to snap a photo before heading out. You can clearly see that A) None of the items have the price for their Tall size listed; B) There is plenty of room on the menu to list all three sizes, so it’s not a matter of having to omit one size for the sake of menu space.

She sent her query to @Starbucks on Twitter but hadn’t heard back as of last night.

Has anyone else seen this change being made at their Starbucks?

More importantly, why do you think they’ve omitted the Tall option from the menu? Is it a deliberate attempt to push customers toward the pricier Grande and Venti drinks? Or could it just be a simple design/printing error?

New Starbucks drive-thru menu omits tall size drinks and prices [GinnySkal.com]

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