So, according to the WSJ, a small coffee at Starbucks is referred to as a tall cup and an extra-small is offered but called a short and is not on the menu boards because they needed room for the grande and venti and four sizes would, apparently, just be way too many.

I have lived in San Francisco for three years and still have not grown accustomed to the “non-fat double capp with extra foam” crowd. I’m sure the employees at the coffee shops have seen the cringe on my face when the person in front of me orders a “venti vanilla soy double latte with extra foam and whipped cream.” This isn’t a personal attack on the lifestyles of the complicated coffee connoisseur, but rather a reflection on growing up in the midwest.

My childhood consisted of one type of coffee with either sugar or cream added. Personally, I need the extra sugar to fight some of the bitter taste when I actually partake of coffe in loo of my regular Dr. Pepper fix. But it really was that simple in the past. I can even acquiesce and see the benefits of different types of milk and lattes and even the occasional cappucino. What I just sit back and laugh at is the complexity and sheer enormousness of the coffee-based big-gulps that the mass populus seems to crave today, to the point that the small cup doesn’t even make it onto the menu board.