Why is Starbucks' smallest drink called 'tall'? It isn’t as straightforward as you might think

It turns out there’s much more to Starbucks’ lingo than you might think

At Starbucks, ordering a cup of Joe comes with much more than an extra shot (Getty Images)

It's a quirk that's puzzled many a frazzled commuter - why do Starbucks insist on calling their small drinks 'tall'?

For seasoned coffee drinkers, ordering a cup of Joe comes with much more than an extra shot; namely a quick-fire master class in entry-level Italian.

But the most puzzling part is why a small coffee has a name which suggests the opposite: tall.

It turns out, it all comes down to space on the Starbucks price board.

When the firm started out, the cup sizes presented more familiar names; a small coffee was called short, the medium size was tall, and the biggest one was known as a grande.

As customers started demanding larger sizes, the short disappeared completely, making way for the more sizeable venti and leaving tall as the smallest option on the board.

The exact origin of the cups Italian names goes back to 1986 when the founder of Starbucks, American businessman Howard Schultz, opened mini coffee chain ‘Il Giornale’.

And, while you may have never heard of it, it was the dawn of all things venti.

When it first opened, the outlet had just three sizes: short, tall and grande but after a trip to Italy in 1983, Schultz became obsessed with the country's coffee bars.

As a result, his own venture became intrinsically designed around the romance of an Italian coffee experience, but why stop at the interior?

Schultz wanted to bring the taste of Italy to America and present Il Giornale’s patrons with something more exotic than a humble brew.

Thus, the use of Italian was carried through to the menu with words like doppio, macchiato, and misto on the menu until, in 1987, he bought a tiny brand called Starbucks.

Fast forward 30 years and there we have it; the Starbucks jargon we all now love, kind of.