Priscilla Pollara is horrified by the chain's latest move. What is it?
If you're the sort who stares bleary-eyed down an empty coffee cup wondering where all its content has gone (and why its effects haven't yet kicked in), I have some welcome news.
Earlier this year, Seattle-based coffee company Starbucks unveiled its 'Trenta' cup - an older brother to its well-known measures: Tall, Grande and Venti.
The translucent container, which will only be used for iced/chilled drinks, holds around 236ml more than the current largest, the Venti, and will measure up to a gargantuan height of 17cm.
But while for now availability of the Trenta will be limited to the American ‘Sun Belt’ states in which it was launched, Starbucks is stopping at nothing in promoting their latest protégé as a ‘great innovation’.
Have Starbucks gone too far?
We may only be weeks into the new project, but already questions are being raised over the necessity for Starbucks’ new cup. I throw my hat into this very same ring - but to understand the unrest, it’s crucial to look at the facts.
A Trenta holds a bladder-bursting 916ml of liquid. That’s nearly a litre. A quarter of a gallon. And – in case you need any more perspective – it is 166 ml more than a standard bottle of wine.
Too much? I agree.
Thirsty Customers
The thinking behind the cup – I was told by a spokesman in Seattle – was to sate the parched mouths of those inhabiting the warmest areas of America, where icy drinks are a daily comfort.
Fair enough, but to me, Trenta is nothing more than a telling example of the modern world’s obsession with consuming supersized, unmanageable amounts of food and drink.
And in any case – why would anyone need to guzzle one and a half pints of iced coffee before their day has even begun?
Are we going from Skinny to Grande?
In recent times, nutrionists have made us all more aware of the deadly buckets of sugar-coated calories that lurk in our favourite and oft-ordered drinks.
For example, a Grande-sized Mocha Frappuccino carries a hefty 378 calories (14g of fat), while the celebrated Christmas Grande Eggnog Latte comes in at a no-less-revolting 470 calories (21g of fat).
The Trenta is no exception. One of its drinks, ‘a Tazo Shaken Iced Passion Tea Lemonade’ totals up to an unwholesome 230 calories. And if the cup were to be used for hotter, more frothy beverages in the future, due to its size, a Trenta Latte could reach an eye-watering 660 calories per drink.
Appalled health experts are quick to point in the direction of calorie-intake guidelines. For if a man is permitted 2500, and a woman 2000 calories per day, how can it be logical to expend such a large quota of that allowance in one go? And in just a drink?
The neglect of real coffee
Since the American coffee chain brought its trademark green starry mermaid symbol to Britain's shores in 1998, Starbucks has become one of our most recognisable high street brands. And so accustomed are we imbibing its products from its 700-nationwide outlets, that it isn’t uncommon to hear people refer to coffee as, ‘Shall we get a Starbucks?’.
But whatever happened to the real stuff? In my country of origin, Italy, ‘coffee chains’ are thankfully non-existent. Most often consumed as swiftly as its name ‘espresso’ suggests – like a shot of throat-scratching Tequila – Italians do not dwell over their caffè.
For natives, it’s the unfussy early-morning, mid-morning post-lunch companion available anywhere a coffee machine is up and running. In fact, so modest are the Italians when it comes to coffee that in Rome – a city overwhelmed with visitors for whom Italian customs are alien – baristi will still raise eyebrows if a cappuccino is ordered at any time other than breakfast.
But it is hard to recall the time before coffee-chains, when Britons happily relied upon bland coffee issued from dispensers to help them stay lucid at work. Now we care about the small things: choice of milk, froth height, and our sprinkled toppings.
And most disastrously of all, none of us seem fussed handing over more than £2 each time for the privilege.
Will it come to the UK?
Like with all things Starbucks, I have a funny feeling that the Trenta is going to be a hit. Already, I hear they are bidding farewell to their original edict and are drawing up plans to see its availability spread across the rest of the US by the close of this year.
For now, Starbucks’ UK outlets will remain protected from Trenta, since there is yet neither a market nor an audience calling out for a chilled drink of such whopping proportions.
The fear is that popularity across the pond will encourage Starbucks to change tack. And considering the prowess they have in pontificating over our coffee-drinking habits, I wouldn’t put it past them.
But 660 calories? No thank you Starbucks. I’d rather eat an entire chocolate cake instead.
What do you think?
Please share your views using the comments box below!
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