When I saw them use the mm side of the ruler and call it inches I knew they were going to debunk modern science and get down to the nitty gritty of Starbucks being a scam
@@ynotsammy you know what you're actually right, i must have looked at it wrong. in fact, it might just round up to 8 as it looks to be around 7 and a half inches
Coffee from Starbucks (and most coffee chains) suck. They tend to take lower-quality beans from coffee farms that often sell different grades at different prices... This is why their drinks are so acidic and sharp on your tongue when compared to speciality/independent coffee. Size versus volume (versus ice) is a bit tricky. Larger sizes take additional espresso shots, so while the ml volume fluctuates (and with/without ice) you're still getting a fixed increase in mg of caffeine. Also I know this entire video was just for fun, but it had to be said 😂
As a former starbucks employee: it really depends on the location. Some places crack down and make you give ONLY the corporate allowed amount but others just tell you to fill it to the top to keep the customers hally
I work at a Starbucks, and I can confirm this to be true. our small is 12 oz, medium is 16, and large is 20 (hot drinks) or 24 (iced drinks), and X-large is 32 (iced drink only). We typically fill the drink up to the third black line and then we fill the rest with ice. I recommend you order light ice or no ice if possible (though some places will charge extra which is BS). When you order a drink of any size at Starbucks, you're essentially paying for half (if not less) the cup size you order P.S. at work I was told apparently that if a customer orders light or no ice we cannot fill the rest of the cup with the drink (I ignore that and give customers the drinks they paid for)
I get warm drinks with no ice or light ice. And if I ask for a cup of ice on the side, my anxious ass gets the glare of death. Baristas at starbucks care a lot about their corporation's profits for some reason
I can confirm with this person as well. I used to work at starbucks and it was stupid how we were basically giving them half of their drink and filling the rest with ice. Especially with the iced coffees and bigger size drinks.
As a former barista, I can assure that the measurements are different for each cup size (and that includes different measurements for the ice). Also the amount of shots of espresso are different between small, medium, and large so the caffeine content is stronger or weaker depending on the size… With that being said, yes Starbucks is still a scam 🥴
14:14 exactly why they dont advertise it as 30 oz of coffee - the law is whenever the advertising language is unclear, "whatever interpretation is most favorable to the customer" becomes the ruling. Starbucks gets away with this by, as you say, "putting the menu in three different languages" so they can say, "Oh, trenta is just the product name." THEY ALSO have an additional language device they use on their menus - purposefully misnaming coffee drinks. The intention is when you go to another coffee shop and order "drink name," they will give you the correct preparation of the item but since you are habituated to Starbucks Language, what you receive is in your mind the "wrong drink." So you dont go back to that other coffee shop..... absolutely despicable!
@@casperryborg4869 Now that Bill Nye and Neil DeGrassi Tyson have majorly shifted their careers into the cameo/lecture circuit America is parched for hard hitting scientific video journalism so I simply could not agree more. Charlie is already the unofficial Christ figure of CZcams, why not play both sides?
@@apacheattackhelicopter7424That's not right in this case. You might be thinking about how high the liquid reaches in the same cup. (I'm not totally sure if that's right either, but makes more sense to me.) But pouring out just the initial coffee, or the initial coffee+melted ice is definitely a different amount.
Im so amazed the boys not only discovered that solids displace liquids, but also that larger amount = more value. Jokes aside it was fun watching the boys reason it out
I was kinda hoping they'd measure how much ice there was in each of them and compare the numbers that way, I thought that was the point of the video. "bigger sizes are better value" is just common sense :(
I worked at a fast food chain, and the manager would make sure to remind us to put as much ice as we can fit into the cups. He'd literally ask the new employees, "Do you know what ice is for?" And they would say something reasonable like, "keep the drink cold?" "No, it's to maximize profit! When the cup is full, shake it down and add some more!"
I worked at a bushs chicken and we did this but only on teas, honestly it’s probably because we went through so much tea that it almost always came out of the pitch warm.
If you took the weight and the volume of the different drinks you could find the density of each of the drinks based off the density you could find out which drink has the most “non-water stuff” using a comparison of how much density changes between the cups with more and less liquid, which is what you’re really paying for.
@@abdallababikir9154 he's saying the amount of coffee that's not water in the no ice drink. They should try to separate it by centrifugal force and analyze how much % of volume of each part occupies each drink
@@ysayeispog6282 To use a centrifuge to separate something from water, what you're trying to separate needs to be both a suspended particulate and more dense than the water. Regardless, a centrifuge of any reasonable size would not be able to spin even a tall. It would be much more practical and reasonable to take the weight of a pot, add the drink and boil off the water, then subtract the weight of the pot afterwards.
he just has to clench his abdominals, and the force creates a miniature black hole which creates enough gravity to shrink charlie to temporarily be the height of a mortal man.
@@potatotuna7988 lol -- it super isn't tho. There's a reason why measuring tools in science are built more narrow than wide. There's less precision the wider the measuring cup is, especially with liquids. I could get more into fixes they could do to make it a bit more "scientific" to remove some possible variables that will affect the results, even though the results will most likely be the exact same "outcome."
start to add layers to your theories now by calculating caffeine amount and measuring the differences of stuff like, what happens when you get a shot of espresso in it, or the differences between their roast types, starbucks is a terrifying entity in this context.
Gotta also factor in that probably a good portion of the ice already melted too so you're getting extra water mixed into the coffee increasing your measurements.
@@MamadNobari it's not a ice cube it's a bunch of ice cubes which can add up. The more ice in the drink the more them melting is going to dilute it. If it was a only handful of ice that's more negligible but not when we're talking about more than half the cup worth.
Bet take a cup of ice fill it with water and take the same cup full it with just water do the same thing they did immediately and you’d be surprised how much the ice actually adds but either way doesn’t matter it’s basic physics and liquid displacement and yada yada 😂
starbucks barista here 🙋♀️ (unfortunately): to measure the liquid for a drink, we pour to that 3rd line you see on the cup and use a designated scoop for the ice. for example, a grande will use the grande scoop of ice. when you order “light ice” we are supposed to use the scoop for the lower size (ex: a grande with light ice would use the tall scoop of ice) then we top it off with extra milk. it isn’t a huge difference but it gets ya a couple extra sips! definitely order with light ice!
Also I'd add there's some drinks that only work with ice. Ice helps break up the matcha powder for example, so a no ice matcha latte won't taste as good. And a no ice refresher will probably be too weak because it means adding extra water/milk.
absolutely agree! before i got my nespresso, i used to always ask for light ice. more drink for my buck. it was a very useful lil hack for days i had classes lol
I'm a Starbucks barista in New Zealand and we don't fill the cup when a customer asks for less ice or none. If they ask for no ice they just get a half filled cup.
Typical corporate logic lol, milk is more expensive than coffee even for quality beans let alone the shit beans major companies use. Why not just add the cheaper option and just give them more coffee? Explains why I hate buying coffee drinks and prefer to just make my own, also explains why every time I order a sweet tea from Mcdonald's the entire cup is all ice with a splash of tea in it, cheap ass bastards This is aimed at the greedy companies, not the employees by the way.
i worked for a small coffee shop that had ice cups that were slightly larger than the hot cups to account for room taken up by ice, i’m not sure if any other places do that but i always thought it was pretty nice 😅
@@zacklyons1284I literally thought I was going insane as a Starbucks barista because the girl in the back (Chelsea I think her name is) kept saying Venti iced is 20 and I was like 2nd guessing everything
I absolutely love that instead of keeping the lid on, and pouring through the tiny hole which the ice cubes can't go through, they kept removing the lid, and using a strainer that's way too big, ruining the deeply scientific accuracy, by spilling.
i'm actually a scientist and you'd be surprised how common that situation is, changing something to be more effective after initial trials. we just call it "protocol optimization" lol
I remember the CEO being confronted with this a while back and he said "what's the problem, just ask for no ice" and now they charge you extra for asking for no ice lol
@pieceofcaca "baristas are the majority who get cussed at for trying to follow company guidelines, not the higher ups." I'll never understand this. I fully understand people being upset about being ripped off. I'll never understand why these people think harassing the minimum wage (or at least close to minimum wage) employees just following directions have any influence over what they're allowed to do. It's not like these people have some secret agenda to piss off the customers for fun or anything.
Where I work (stand alone location) less/more/no ice has no effect on price. The only thing you pay extra for is additional things like shots or syrups.
@@Naokarma I’m a current Starbucks barista and what I’ve notice is that when some people get angry they will redirect that anger to whoever will listen. Sometimes it’s as innocent venting to their friends/date that they might be with, but more often than not it’s to the barista because A. it’s our job to listen and B. we’re the first line of communication for the customer. I try not to take it personally, and I’d say half of the time the customer will apologize as long as I communicate with them well and resolve whatever the issue is. Angry irrational Karens however, I have no explanation for lmao
@@alexdalex3582no shit, but ice cubes take up more space than the actual coffee itself, so you're really just getting more frozen water than you are coffee
I'm a Starbucks barista in the US. When we make drinks we are supposed to fill the cups up to the top BLACK line. Not over, not under, but exactly to that line. And then fill the cup up with ice. That's the "standard" for nearly all iced drinks (exception is for things like Frappuccinos which have a different "recipe"). We are given measuring ice scoops for each size. So you use a tall (small) ice scoop to fill a tall drink. If you poured the right amount of liquid it won't over flow! :) So if you ever buy a drink look at where the top black line is and THAT'S how much you're actually getting with a normal amount of ice. There's no charge for light ice/no ice, and at my location we are told to fill to the top. Basically the advertisements are "cup size X fits Y ounces of drinks", what they don't say is "Y = drink + ice" so people will feel like they're getting ripped off!
People should assume they're getting ice in their drink if they ask for an iced drink. It's the same at every restaurant. If you don't want a cup full of ice you gotta ask for light ice. Idk why people haven't figured this out yet
I was just about to say all of this. Also since iced is in the name of the drink, its recipe was formulated with ice in mind. With that being said, most of the stores I’ve worked at essentially brew it, dilute it (ice+water), then let it sit till it runs out. Without the ice you’d probably get room temperature coffee, but you would get more product. Cold brew on the other hand is a different story though.
Isn't .. liquid.. water... ml... vs... frozen water... ml... the same... ml... :D you pay for the shots not the "consistency" of the water. Starbucks sucks sure.. but I don't think Ice is the scam :D Unless it's a milk drink.. than you get ice = water instead of the precious milk/alternative.
While I worked at Dunkin my manager was a jerk and started charging people extra for no ice or simply wouldn't fill it all the way. It was such a stupid rule that most of the staff decided to not follow it since we didn't feel like arguing with customers. So not sure if it's the same for Starbucks, but a manager might try to pull the same thing there if you ask for no ice if they have control over their store prices.
I heard that we (starbucks) now have to fill the milk all the way for the iced espresso drinks if customers ask 🙃. Supposedly, people would threaten baristas over that shit. Either way, I do fill it up and say, "I recommend ordering this as a latte next time. 😁 So that way, you can get that extra milk"
If there is a app I’d recommend ordering that way. Starbucks app won’t recognize the extra no ice or light ice charges. Not sure about the other places though.
It started being the same at Starbucks a year ago cause I used to work at these and yeah my staff was the same. We said nah we not doing that lame stuff we’re giving them a good cup of coffee. like what’s better? A happy returning customer? Or an upset customer that will never come back because we were anal about no ice.
As a Starbucks barista, we fill the liquid content to the top line of the cup and add ice until the cup is full. If you get light ice, we put more coffee but less ice so your cup is still full, and the opposite for extra ice. If you want to save the most money, order your drink with no ice and a side cup of ice (preferably a larger size than the no ice drink). Congratulations, you saved money Edit: That’s at least how my store works. Some stores won’t fill the cup all the way if you ask for no ice. Also for iced drinks (these measurements regard the entire cup, including coffee, ice, and add-ins): Tall: 12oz Grande: 16oz Venti: 26oz Trenta: 30oz
Former Starbucks barista here! The lines on the cold drinks is what we use for measuring the drinks. If you have a black coffee we go to the top line then add ice. With cream we measure to the middle line for the coffee, fill to the top line with cream, then the rest ice. You’re welcome y’all :). Also the bottom of the iced drink cups tell you how many ounces are meant to in the drink in total. This is only true if you have no ice though
Are these drinks just espresso shots and then you add water to the top line or how do they make it? If they all have the same amount of espressos and the amount of water is different, then it's not really a scam lmao
@@spoiledmolokofor an americano it is always the same amount of shots for that particular iced drink. Tall is 1, grande is 2, venti is 3. Then fill to top line with water and add ice. It’s is viturally always the same for any other drink like lattes, macchiatos ect, with some slight difference for some drinks like the shaken espresso drink having the scope of ice (which are different size scopes for their respected sized cup) shots of espresso, and extra flavored stuff like syrup ect added to a shaker, then shaken and added to a the cup with the milk poured on top at the end. But for almost every single drink that is iced has easy to follow measurements to have a uniform consistency between all Starbucks. Hope that helps :)
omg that's not how I did it when I was a partner lol. I would fill to the top line, do ice but then leave a little room for the cream. I was never explicitly told that the middle and top lines were for cream or no cream. And I worked at 7 different stores in CA and AZ 2012-2016
@@MasterLink924 Actually the shot numbers have changed for iced americanos. I'm a current partner and for iced americanos (and shaken espressos) it's tall-2, grande-3, venti-4. But for regular iced lattes it's tall-1, grande-2, and venti-3 😊
As someone who worked there, the iced coffee is brewed stronger to account for the watering down of the ice. It is less liquid volume, but generally the same intensity of flavor once mixed. And yes, bigger cups get more liquid. Basically the amount of liquid in the next size up + ice could fill the last size down without any ice. So a grande no ice is basically the same amount as a venti with ice. This is not the same for trenta, since it isn't so much of a "scale up" as it is just an extra large venti. edit - Also, the iced cups are slightly larger than the hot cups to allow for ice to be added.
As a coffee fan who recently got a job at Starbucks during college, I don’t drink Starbucks coffee or espresso. Also the quantity/quality of your drink really depends on who makes it, and how much they like you.
As a barista at Starbucks, we pretty much follow a guideline, the top line of the cup is where you stop filling up (if iced drinks) and then fill it with ice, other ice drinks that use a shaker then we have sections of the shaker of how much you should put (ie juice, lemonade, base, sections or if just milk all the way to that section that makes up juice, lemonade and base all together) and then fill the shaker with ice with the ice section If it’s hot drinks that’s not brewed coffee we just fill it the milk and foam (unless they asked for no foam) and fill the entire cup, we also have little indicators on the pitchers that you should fill this amount of milk depending on the size so at most you just get like 20% foam and the rest milk, espresso and any other add on that drink comes with
Also the bottom of ice cups give the total amount of ounces that can fit into the cup Hot ones don’t really tell you the ounces and the way to differentiate the cups of you can’t tell just by looking at them you look at the bottom and they have a line of mixed letters but the verse first letter will tell you whether it’s venti, grande, etc for example: VDH36SD - the V means it’s venti, G38SFE - the G means grande, etc.
you'd think but somewhere in the last few years I've been working at starbucks I noticed they raised the price of large iced variants as opposed to their hot drink counterparts.
As a former Starbucks employee, a larger size is definitely more liquid. The quality of you drink will definitely vary per barista though. And you can always just ask for less ice lol.
@catzlolthelegendGo somewhere else. The reason that everyone dislikes you is.A)You're a spammer.B) You're an angry dude that is miserable and won't try be desent, or respectable to anyone. Try it you'll feel good and smile.😊
I am a Starbucks barista and the amount of ice we put in drinks is crazy, most of the time you're only getting half the cup of actual drink and the rest is just ice, I've started just putting light ice in drinks because I feel bad that people are paying $8 for a latte that's half water.
@@Dontstopbelievingman the problem usually isn't any of the other baristas or the manager most of the time, its the way the corporation itself handles things that is what makes it bad
Charlie made a Esports team , Comic series (godslap), Merch, Video channel and more. Yet he can't pour a coffee from cup to measuring jug it had me laughing my ass off. Also i've come to love seeing matt he's a legend :)
Starbucks literally stated that they dont care about the quality of their coffee. thats why their coffee beans are the cheapest you can find. people pay for it anyway. so the coffee that you buy for 11 dollars cost them around 50 cents to make. thats how they stay in business by idiots like you who keep buying crap.
I think its worth mentioning, the amount of syrup and coffee (measured in number of espresso shots, probably?) isnt changing with each cup. The ice constitutes a significant amount of water, which would otherwise just be included, except in liquid state.
espresso is akin to hard alcholhol shots compard to nbeer. regualr coffee is like beer, weaker caffiene and cheaper, weaker taste shots of high rpoof alchol are stronger but you drink FAR FAR less. espresso holds more caffeine than coffee beans - but something like a Latte ( made with espresso ) is 70% moilk.
just to note, the drink without ice should come up to the top line that is on the side of the cup, then ice is scooped in which will bring the liquid to the top. if you ask for less ice you get more drink. There are also 3 different sized scoops, a tall, grande, and venti scoop. Starbucks wants everything to be consistent as possible hence the lines on the cups, and the different sized scoops. The different sized drinks also get different amounts of pumps of syrups and different amount of espresso shots. For a hot Latte for example, syrups pumps for Short-2 Tall-3 Grande-4 Venti-5. Espresso shots go, Short and Talls get 1, Grande and Venti get 2. If it was a cold latte the amount of syrups and shots are the same apart from venti ice which gets an extra of each. If you ask for less ice, your drink would still be filled to the top but the amount of espresso and syrup would remain the same but the amount of milk would increase.
I have worked at Starbucks for about 3 years now and yes, it is 100% a scam. Everything is belligerently expensive, and I will honestly use any excuse to give people their drinks for free. You can easily make a much better version of essentially everything we have for much cheaper at home, as SB brewed coffee isn't very good to begin with. Whether the official policy is enforced depends entirely on the individual store. At my store we have been told to never say no to anyone for any reason, regardless of the customer's aggression and franchise policy. Edit: Originally we were told to do things like not fill the cup all the way if someone asked for no ice, but once our customer connection scores went down, we were told to abandon policy entirely :)
@@phelan8385 Essentially if it would avoid any sort of agitation on the customers part, yes. I might be able to tell them no the first time, but the moment they start to argue I am supposed to give them whatever they want.
You still can 😳 I refuse to correct people unless if they ask. Hell, I even read back the order with whatever size names the customer uses. I'm glad it's not standard to correct people instantly
The biggest problem I have with Starbucks is that the price of a tall iced coffee is $1-$2 more expensive than just a tall hot coffee. Why get charged more for getting less coffee?...
I'm probably gonna get fired for this, but yes. Even working there is a scam lmao. They claimed that they'll pay for your college, but only if you're going to ASU 🙃
With Charlie’s long hair and influential reach, the best marketing Starbucks could do is make a temporary special edition logo cups where it’s Charlie replacing the siren or woman in the logo.
Are you guys putting into account the melted ice that add to the coffee before they strain the coffee because I'm guessing it had to have been awhile from store to filming so mild melt ice might make a difference.
@@gillegan7189 Technically, if you let all of your ice melt, you don't lose anything. Water makes up like 98% coffee anyway🤷♂The ice's displacement still represents total volume. Just ask for no ice if you think its a scam.... then drive home and put your coffee in the refrigerator LoL.
You can literally just order it with no ice and ask for a second cup of ice and they’ll give you the ice cup for free. Same with how their ice waters are usually free. I used to work at a mall and was constantly doing Starbucks water runs for my managers.
I used to work at these places for years and that used to be true until last year. You ask for no ice you get charged which is dumb because what If I just don’t want ice and no extra coffee? Also some baristas will just be lame and follow that rule so good luck on that. Unless you’re like a regular or someone chill to them and they give you a full cup and ice on the side. This is what I used to do personally bc screw Starbucks. Even after they started charging for that I still didn’t follow that stuff. Never used to charge for additions either cause that’s whack lol
funny, cause i ordered ice water one time and they told me ice water is 3 dollars. i told them "fuck that" and walked out and the girl got pissed off at me that i didnt spend 3 dollars on ice water. maybe she was trying to pocket the money or something idk. or she was just being an ass that day cause she was having a bad day, but after that i never tried to order water from starbucks ever again
What? That's crazy. Water is absolutely 100% free from the tap. Only a bottled water costs anything. That girl was definitely just being a bitch.@@brandimullins8813
Shockingly, the price per mL/oz gets better as the size increases. Like with.. basically anything you buy lol. But was still good to see you do actually get more drink at a bigger size. Never tried to test it myself. Closest "test" I did was, on two different days, I got a cup of ice, a large cup and an extra large cup. I filled both with ice. My 20oz Dr. Pepper fit to the same fill level for each cup. So, I wouldn't doubt if some places the larger drink is actually the same amount of drink in a bigger cup.
I'm having flashbacks to every group science and engineering project. Wherein I'm the only one trying to get true measurements and data and my classmates are giggling and spilling mah science!
not a bad concept but calorie testing takes WAY longer and is way more annoying, like maybe they'd wanna do it though they do have a FACILITY. I took a bunch of anatomy and food science courses in college as electives and basically you have to just burn the thing to a cinder and measure the heat it gives off, but like most food isn't really "flammable" or doesn't burn quick at least.
So this is accurate on drinks like Iced Coffee or Cold Brew (ones that are only one mixed ingredient). However, usually the dilution is set with the ice in mind for the ideal strength, so no ice would be stronger than ideal. On top of this, you can also get free refills on iced coffee/hot coffee with the app so no need to modify it in the first place. This won't work for milk and espresso drinks since no ice will result in more milk to espresso (weak milky drink)
Was looking for this comment. The whole idea with the way the recipe works (certain amount of ice+ certain amount of coffee liquid) is so that if you get two cups of different sizes (let's say tall and grande), and you take a sip out of one cup and then a sip from the other cup, they would taste exactly the same, it's just a matter of how much of a drink you want. And it's easy to lose sight in these type of "lab experiments" that ice IS WATER. So whether you get a cup of coffee without any ice or a cup of coffee with ice, you still get the same amount of "liquid" (meaning, water), so the only thing different between the two cups is how much coffee you're getting, which is probably less than $0.01 in value - and the store DOES let you ask for no ice if you want, meaning, you're more than welcome to request a "stronger" drink (no ice meaning more coffee), that is certainly something Starbucks is letting you do, and if you're thinking that you got more "bang for your buck", it really depends on how you define what bang is. Did you get less than $0.01 value? That's really not that great a deal. Most Americans donate their extra cents to reduce the clutter in their pocket anyway, that tells you how little a cent is worth to most consumers. Is it getting a stronger coffee either because you're trying to get a higher buzz or prefer the taste of the cup better? That's great, go for it, Starbucks lets you do that, the same way that you can ask for more pickles on you burger at McDonald's and they don't charge you for that. At the end of the day, with ice or without ice - you're getting the same amount of water, a possibility different flavor due to slightly more coffee extract, and hardly any difference in cost to the store. It all comes down to you preference in flavor, there's really no scam here any way you try to look at it.
@@themorrigan7702 if it's a licensed store like Target/Kroger or campus ones, they might be able to do that since they're ran by third-party companies. However, they can get in trouble for doing that at official stores and could very well be fired for it unfortunately
@@thejuicyroma I watched a video comparing different "coffee chains" drinks and value one time. It was espresso based drinks with Starbucks being 26oz and the other being 32oz but they didn't get that the 32oz wasn't really a value since of how diluted it was with milk. They all use similar amounts of espresso, it's the milk/water that changes so the bigger ones are just less espresso on the ratio. They're not likely to use more espresso because they want to keep them at certain caffeine levels for the default ones and if they use coffee instead, it's going to result in a similar mixture as the espresso ones
I don’t know if you have shit in your ears or something, but like 30 seconds in they explicitly mention that they are comparing the amount of ice BETWEEN the different sizes.
This just reminds me of working at a bar, and people would ask for stuff like "Whisky and coke, no ice" Expecting to get more Whisky, instead of more coke. Or get mad that their drink doesn't taste very strong
former starbucks worker here. The cup says on the bottom how many oz it is with ice. So just the volume of the cup. Also, we put the coffee in the cup FIRST. it goes all the way to the 2nd line and then filled to the top with ice.
Having worked at Panera I can promise you that when you order a drink we gave you more ice based on the size of the cup. Ask for no or light ice wherever you go.
i remember here in Australia starbucks tried to come into our market for a while, but we already have such a strong coffee and cafe culture (a lot of Mediterranean immigrants decades ago), that we were just like it's bad. we have so many options for even just mediocre café chains all over the place. and if u just want a quick sugar and coffee hit u can just get a Dare or even energy drink.
Yeah, here in Italy too. We’re a coffe country, all in all (espresso, americano, cappuccino, grande, venti, macchiato - all italian names, and so many more). Starbucks has tried opening in Milan, in Rome, and maybe somewhere else, and the only reason it hasn’t failed is tourists. Only people that go there. Italians stay far, far away. Prices are insulting compared to what we’re used to (5 euros for a cappuccino is ridiculous) and the quality is okay at best. Nothing more. I think most places they’ve tried opening have failed
Actually, the sad reality is that even though Starbucks in other countries still suck, it’s surprisingly higher quality than the one in the US. I tried a Starbucks in France, and it tasted miles better than the Starbucks in the US. Like WTH, the freaking restaurant originated in the US. Same goes for McDonalds. In Canada and Japan, its higher quality meat. Hell, Canadian McDonald’s sell Angus Beef patties.
Hi, barista here at the one across from UT. The sizes are designed to sell the largest, because of the minimal price difference. The ice is measured per size, and we measure the drink amount as well. The ice is to keep it cold (obviously) but to also melt and add to the drink over time, I guess. You're paying for the amount of drink. Light ice = less time to be cold but more drink.
One thing I can absolutely confirm is that all the harsh taste is masked by syrups. It tasted good, until one day I ordered something and forgot to add Vanilla syrup. I didn’t like the drink and they decided to remake my drink as per policy. It tasted better, but only because the syrup. To confirm my assumption, I outright bought the official vanilla syrup from my local Starbucks and made a latte at home with my Rancillio and purposefully made a bad shot by gridding too fine. It surprisingly still tasted decent after adding their Vanilla. Btw, if anyone’s curious, a bottle of their syrup with pump is ~$13 and at least for me, a bottle lasted me half a year. Definitely buy the syrup if you like Starbucks, because with it, you can’t really taste the difference between home made and store bought.
For those wondering (starbies supervisor here), we are able to sell our vanilla, caramel, and I believe the classic (standard sugar syrup) syrups. They have barcodes on them that the barista/employee at the register can scan to bring up the item and it's price. Just ask the employee at the register that you'd like to purchase one and they will retrieve the bottle for you. We cannot sell any syrups/sauces that do not have a barcode. Not all employees know that/realize that since it isn't taught during training, so if your person at the register doesn't know, just tell them the bottle has a barcode on it they can scan. However, they can deny selling them to you if they have low stock and can't afford to sell the bottle instead of using it to make product ie: whip creams, sweet creams, etc, which all require vanilla syrup and a lot of it. Also you can request a pump as well when you purchase the syrup, however they won't always have extra to be able to give, but always feel free to ask and see if they do. Hope this helps!
You forgot to consider that the greater the surface-area-to-volume ratio of the size & shape of the coffee cup, the more ice will have melted by the time you measured it!
I just avoid this problem altogether by ordering my drinks without ice no matter where I go, except for in actual restaurants because then it doesn’t really matter. The drinks I get are still nice and cold because the water used to make the drink is cold already, it just won’t stay as cold for as long as it would if you got it with ice. I originally started doing it just because I hate watered down drinks and I could almost never finish a drink before the ice melted too much and made it taste gross. If you really wanna make the most out of it and you need ice for your drink, then order your drink without ice and then also ask for a cup of ice. That said, idk how this would work with a place like starbucks because I don’t ever go there.
as someone who worked at starbucks the amount of ice is INSANE. but if you ask for "light ice" we just go down a size for the according cups. like if you ordered a grande and want light ice, we put a tall size amount of ice. there should be lines on the side of the cup that we use for guides for how much ice (or that could be for the shakers, i cant remember). always go no ice
The most epic gum in the world is real natural mastic gum from Greece. I LOVE it, I will chew that everyday until the day I die. It is even healthy for you and it helps my digestion a ton. You can even swallow it in small pieces for even more digestion benefits. Every piece taste a tiny bit different and it is all natural tree sap. Try it out, get the biggest pieces you can find and enjoy. If you like chewing gum I can not imagine you will not love it.
I used to work for the siren in high school. The thing about the coffee is it's about as good as mass produced coffee can be. There are stores that exist called "Reserves" where they sell specialty small lot coffees that are worth the dollar. But they definitely overprice for how much they produce
I went to a boba shop and ordered a large without ice, and watched them fill a small cup with the tea, and then dump ice in the large cup, and then pour the small cup of tea into the large cup with ice. On top of that, they were slow, so I didn't want to hold up the line of customers to fix the injustice
They have recently started charging extra when you ask for light or no ice. After the Tik Tok trend caught on and everyone started doing it they got more greedy. Some employees won't charge you but its a new thing they have started doing.
The smart thing would be to get a iced coffee, but ask for the ice to be separate that way you get the largest amount of coffee and then add ice when needed
When I saw them use the mm side of the ruler and call it inches I knew they were going to debunk modern science and get down to the nitty gritty of Starbucks being a scam
i don't understand how he can call centimeters inches
@@grilledcheesecatGD it was clearly 7 inches. don't let the haters tell you otherwise
I like to tell myself that's 7 inches at least
@@verynefariousHUH
@@ynotsammy you know what you're actually right, i must have looked at it wrong. in fact, it might just round up to 8 as it looks to be around 7 and a half inches
Coffee from Starbucks (and most coffee chains) suck. They tend to take lower-quality beans from coffee farms that often sell different grades at different prices... This is why their drinks are so acidic and sharp on your tongue when compared to speciality/independent coffee. Size versus volume (versus ice) is a bit tricky. Larger sizes take additional espresso shots, so while the ml volume fluctuates (and with/without ice) you're still getting a fixed increase in mg of caffeine. Also I know this entire video was just for fun, but it had to be said 😂
Menus from smaller coffee places like ellianos and red owl are good
You're one of my favorite True Crime Channels ❤
It's about about the caffeine quantity
Starbucks not only is watery coffee it also uses slave labor. Look it up.
Great to see you chime in on this video! Love your videos too!
Love your channel btw ❤ thanks for the info!
This is also not taking into account that the ice was already melting before they strained it, adding more volume
Finally I found someone who noticed that
nerd
the plot thickens...
As a former starbucks employee: it really depends on the location. Some places crack down and make you give ONLY the corporate allowed amount but others just tell you to fill it to the top to keep the customers hally
As a current employee that's about right.
Even so, it's still a scam because of the outrageous price.
Im not a hally customer. 🤣
@@S1RLANC3it is not a scam if people are willing to pay for it for their own enjoyment.
but yeah, sTarBuckS BaD!!!!!!1111
Nah Starbucks a total scam I still be workin there we just got told to start charging people like $5 if they want a water with strawberries
Matt seems to be quite enthusiastic when it comes to science, so I say y’all should do more science experiments
AGREED MORE EXPERIMENTS
Mixing bleach with hydrochloric acid 🙂
You’ll be a good parent :)
@@germanfisch cleans cloths well
@@germanfischHNO3 with CL2 🤓
You guys should do this to all the other coffee chains to see which ones stay true to their claims.
@catzlolthelegendbro no one cares cry to someone else
I bet you 50 bucks that he would have a better experience with grocery store coffee rather than Starbucks. hits diff tbh
Tim Hortons will win
@@Fang-sigma2mzI’m Canadian and we both know Timmy’s is low key ass
The coffee wars have begun !
I work at a Starbucks, and I can confirm this to be true. our small is 12 oz, medium is 16, and large is 20 (hot drinks) or 24 (iced drinks), and X-large is 32 (iced drink only).
We typically fill the drink up to the third black line and then we fill the rest with ice. I recommend you order light ice or no ice if possible (though some places will charge extra which is BS).
When you order a drink of any size at Starbucks, you're essentially paying for half (if not less) the cup size you order
P.S. at work I was told apparently that if a customer orders light or no ice we cannot fill the rest of the cup with the drink (I ignore that and give customers the drinks they paid for)
I get warm drinks with no ice or light ice. And if I ask for a cup of ice on the side, my anxious ass gets the glare of death. Baristas at starbucks care a lot about their corporation's profits for some reason
@@kombuchas4684i ask for water i feel like imma be shot
You are not the hero we deserved
I can confirm with this person as well. I used to work at starbucks and it was stupid how we were basically giving them half of their drink and filling the rest with ice. Especially with the iced coffees and bigger size drinks.
@@thatjuicyboi8516beggars can't be choosers
Them using the cm side and calling it inches is exactly the quality content I expect of this masterminds
Charlie pouring a 12oz drink in to an 8oz measuring cup is so funny
😂🤣
looks like its 14oz lol God this hurt my brain seeing them figure out how to mesure lmfao🤣🤣
lol .. but, what if it DOES?!
I laughed more than I should have. That, and then them sticking in the ruler 😅😂
Whenever any show movie says "send that to the lab!" I will now picture Matt and Charlie bumbling around, reading instruments wrong
"I've got an abacus, I'll count the ice cubes"
"Send that to the lab!"
*meanwhile*
"Charlie which side is centimeters?"
"Matt, that's a bunsen burner."
As a former barista, I can assure that the measurements are different for each cup size (and that includes different measurements for the ice). Also the amount of shots of espresso are different between small, medium, and large so the caffeine content is stronger or weaker depending on the size…
With that being said, yes Starbucks is still a scam 🥴
yeah its pretty uniform in terms of measurements but yeah paying $8 for a cup of any coffee is crazy lol
@@joetheseventeenthits the lattes that are $8. A cup of Joe is like $2-$3. Source: I work there.
@@joetheseventeenth yeah I’ve sold a $15 drink before because of all the add ons too. It’s wildddddd how expensive it can get
@@misskonika i do too im just saying 95% of the stuff there is overpriced as hell lol
allegedly
14:14 exactly why they dont advertise it as 30 oz of coffee - the law is whenever the advertising language is unclear, "whatever interpretation is most favorable to the customer" becomes the ruling.
Starbucks gets away with this by, as you say, "putting the menu in three different languages" so they can say, "Oh, trenta is just the product name."
THEY ALSO have an additional language device they use on their menus - purposefully misnaming coffee drinks. The intention is when you go to another coffee shop and order "drink name," they will give you the correct preparation of the item but since you are habituated to Starbucks Language, what you receive is in your mind the "wrong drink." So you dont go back to that other coffee shop..... absolutely despicable!
Starbucks is the Estus Flask for Karens.
first
@@SavitarJrimagine being that guy
LOL
Fr
True
I never expected the channel to transition into a scientific one but im up for it.
I wouldn't call this "scientific" lmao
@@otterpoppin What the hell are you talking about?
This is putting Albert Einstein himself to shame.
@@casperryborg4869 Now that Bill Nye and Neil DeGrassi Tyson have majorly shifted their careers into the cameo/lecture circuit America is parched for hard hitting scientific video journalism so I simply could not agree more. Charlie is already the unofficial Christ figure of CZcams, why not play both sides?
@@otterpoppin Yes you are right. This is beyond science
But the amount of editing being used is really uncanny considering this is on Charlie's channel
keep in mind depending on how long the drinks were sitting there, you'd have to account for how much of the ice has melted
indeed, was thinking this exact thing as well
thatd be very minimal
Ice melting would be in starbucks favor. If they immediately measured the coffee amount it would be worse than what was shown
I could be wrong, but Ice melting wouldn’t affect the amount they pour out because of displacement
@@apacheattackhelicopter7424That's not right in this case. You might be thinking about how high the liquid reaches in the same cup. (I'm not totally sure if that's right either, but makes more sense to me.)
But pouring out just the initial coffee, or the initial coffee+melted ice is definitely a different amount.
Over the Hedge was honestly the best representation of a dangerous dog in animation. “Play? Play!!” He just wanted to play
Im so amazed the boys not only discovered that solids displace liquids, but also that larger amount = more value. Jokes aside it was fun watching the boys reason it out
Don't be that guy
I was kinda hoping they'd measure how much ice there was in each of them and compare the numbers that way, I thought that was the point of the video.
"bigger sizes are better value" is just common sense :(
@@elementalghosthey dude you don't be that guy
@fanom4827 I think the joke went over your head my man. 😆
@@elementalghost not at all that's why I gave you that thumbs up kiddo
Paying 8$ for some bean water is totally not a scam.
Nah bro bean water is crazy it's true tho.
i will henceforth be calling coffee “bean water”
I always hate vast simplifications of the world don't get me wrong i coffee in general but its so cringe to call it just bean water
i mostly go for the sandwiches
@@mimimshockyou and every other quirky, unique individual that isn’t like everyone else.
I worked at a fast food chain, and the manager would make sure to remind us to put as much ice as we can fit into the cups. He'd literally ask the new employees, "Do you know what ice is for?" And they would say something reasonable like, "keep the drink cold?"
"No, it's to maximize profit! When the cup is full, shake it down and add some more!"
Which is frustrating, because soda fountains are already a profit cow
I got the same talk when i worked fast-food. I felt dirty every time i followed those orders- and rarely did when the manager wasn't around.
The trick is to ask for no ice
I worked at a bushs chicken and we did this but only on teas, honestly it’s probably because we went through so much tea that it almost always came out of the pitch warm.
This is why I always ask for no ice
If you took the weight and the volume of the different drinks you could find the density of each of the drinks based off the density you could find out which drink has the most “non-water stuff” using a comparison of how much density changes between the cups with more and less liquid, which is what you’re really paying for.
really won't work, as ice is almost as dense as water. You need much more accurate measurements
@@abdallababikir9154 he's saying the amount of coffee that's not water in the no ice drink.
They should try to separate it by centrifugal force and analyze how much % of volume of each part occupies each drink
@@ysayeispog6282 This has nothing to do with the method Matt Ethos described. Also, you don't need a centrifuge to separate ice from coffee
@@ysayeispog6282 To use a centrifuge to separate something from water, what you're trying to separate needs to be both a suspended particulate and more dense than the water. Regardless, a centrifuge of any reasonable size would not be able to spin even a tall. It would be much more practical and reasonable to take the weight of a pot, add the drink and boil off the water, then subtract the weight of the pot afterwards.
Love how Charlie always shrinks himself in these videos to not dwarf the other people. What a humble man.
Some call him.... The Humbler
he just has to clench his abdominals, and the force creates a miniature black hole which creates enough gravity to shrink charlie to temporarily be the height of a mortal man.
@@DarthZ01😂😂
I remember in Charlie's earliest podcasts, he wanted to rate fast food with scientific equipment. Glad to see it's come full circle
this is cooking equipment, not science equipment
@@ElyskeTheDonutpotayto-potahto
@@ElyskeTheDonutsame thijg
@@potatotuna7988 lol -- it super isn't tho. There's a reason why measuring tools in science are built more narrow than wide. There's less precision the wider the measuring cup is, especially with liquids.
I could get more into fixes they could do to make it a bit more "scientific" to remove some possible variables that will affect the results, even though the results will most likely be the exact same "outcome."
@@ElyskeTheDonut it was sarcasm man
You gotta appreciate Charlie's dedication. This has to be the most money he's expended on a video ever.
Wtf are you talking about
@@shashungajoke ------->
Your head
@@shashunga is the type of guy to get pressed over a joke lmaoo
@ReturnOfACGwho
Cares
pays for itself
start to add layers to your theories now by calculating caffeine amount and measuring the differences of stuff like, what happens when you get a shot of espresso in it, or the differences between their roast types, starbucks is a terrifying entity in this context.
Gotta also factor in that probably a good portion of the ice already melted too so you're getting extra water mixed into the coffee increasing your measurements.
Freedom measurements 😂
@@MamadNobariany amount is important in a scientific experiment
@@MamadNobarinobody tell him what an iceberg is
@@MamadNobari it's not a ice cube it's a bunch of ice cubes which can add up. The more ice in the drink the more them melting is going to dilute it. If it was a only handful of ice that's more negligible but not when we're talking about more than half the cup worth.
Bet take a cup of ice fill it with water and take the same cup full it with just water do the same thing they did immediately and you’d be surprised how much the ice actually adds but either way doesn’t matter it’s basic physics and liquid displacement and yada yada 😂
starbucks barista here 🙋♀️ (unfortunately):
to measure the liquid for a drink, we pour to that 3rd line you see on the cup and use a designated scoop for the ice. for example, a grande will use the grande scoop of ice. when you order “light ice” we are supposed to use the scoop for the lower size (ex: a grande with light ice would use the tall scoop of ice) then we top it off with extra milk. it isn’t a huge difference but it gets ya a couple extra sips! definitely order with light ice!
Also I'd add there's some drinks that only work with ice. Ice helps break up the matcha powder for example, so a no ice matcha latte won't taste as good. And a no ice refresher will probably be too weak because it means adding extra water/milk.
absolutely agree! before i got my nespresso, i used to always ask for light ice. more drink for my buck. it was a very useful lil hack for days i had classes lol
I'm a Starbucks barista in New Zealand and we don't fill the cup when a customer asks for less ice or none. If they ask for no ice they just get a half filled cup.
Typical corporate logic lol, milk is more expensive than coffee even for quality beans let alone the shit beans major companies use. Why not just add the cheaper option and just give them more coffee? Explains why I hate buying coffee drinks and prefer to just make my own, also explains why every time I order a sweet tea from Mcdonald's the entire cup is all ice with a splash of tea in it, cheap ass bastards
This is aimed at the greedy companies, not the employees by the way.
Thank you
i worked for a small coffee shop that had ice cups that were slightly larger than the hot cups to account for room taken up by ice, i’m not sure if any other places do that but i always thought it was pretty nice 😅
What a nice coffee shop ❤
Starbucks kind of does this with its Venti cups. A venti iced cup is 24 oz while the venti hot cup is 20 oz.
@@zacklyons1284and they fill that 24pz cup with 12oz of ice
@@zacklyons1284I literally thought I was going insane as a Starbucks barista because the girl in the back (Chelsea I think her name is) kept saying Venti iced is 20 and I was like 2nd guessing everything
I absolutely love that instead of keeping the lid on, and pouring through the tiny hole which the ice cubes can't go through, they kept removing the lid, and using a strainer that's way too big, ruining the deeply scientific accuracy, by spilling.
🤓
i'm actually a scientist and you'd be surprised how common that situation is, changing something to be more effective after initial trials. we just call it "protocol optimization" lol
Someone didn't watch the video to the end :D
I remember the CEO being confronted with this a while back and he said "what's the problem, just ask for no ice" and now they charge you extra for asking for no ice lol
How is that legal wtf
@pieceofcaca "baristas are the majority who get cussed at for trying to follow company guidelines, not the higher ups."
I'll never understand this. I fully understand people being upset about being ripped off. I'll never understand why these people think harassing the minimum wage (or at least close to minimum wage) employees just following directions have any influence over what they're allowed to do. It's not like these people have some secret agenda to piss off the customers for fun or anything.
Where I work (stand alone location) less/more/no ice has no effect on price. The only thing you pay extra for is additional things like shots or syrups.
@@Naokarma I’m a current Starbucks barista and what I’ve notice is that when some people get angry they will redirect that anger to whoever will listen. Sometimes it’s as innocent venting to their friends/date that they might be with, but more often than not it’s to the barista because A. it’s our job to listen and B. we’re the first line of communication for the customer. I try not to take it personally, and I’d say half of the time the customer will apologize as long as I communicate with them well and resolve whatever the issue is. Angry irrational Karens however, I have no explanation for lmao
I order light ice every time and it's no extra charge.
The amount of ice coffee shops like Dunkin or Starbucks pit in their coffee has always infuriated me.
Dunkin>Starbucks ftw
A major component of coffee is water.
@@alexdalex3582lmao fr
@@alexdalex3582no shit, but ice cubes take up more space than the actual coffee itself, so you're really just getting more frozen water than you are coffee
You guys drink your coffee cold?
I'm a Starbucks barista in the US. When we make drinks we are supposed to fill the cups up to the top BLACK line. Not over, not under, but exactly to that line. And then fill the cup up with ice. That's the "standard" for nearly all iced drinks (exception is for things like Frappuccinos which have a different "recipe"). We are given measuring ice scoops for each size. So you use a tall (small) ice scoop to fill a tall drink. If you poured the right amount of liquid it won't over flow! :) So if you ever buy a drink look at where the top black line is and THAT'S how much you're actually getting with a normal amount of ice. There's no charge for light ice/no ice, and at my location we are told to fill to the top.
Basically the advertisements are "cup size X fits Y ounces of drinks", what they don't say is "Y = drink + ice" so people will feel like they're getting ripped off!
People should assume they're getting ice in their drink if they ask for an iced drink. It's the same at every restaurant. If you don't want a cup full of ice you gotta ask for light ice. Idk why people haven't figured this out yet
I was just about to say all of this. Also since iced is in the name of the drink, its recipe was formulated with ice in mind. With that being said, most of the stores I’ve worked at essentially brew it, dilute it (ice+water), then let it sit till it runs out. Without the ice you’d probably get room temperature coffee, but you would get more product. Cold brew on the other hand is a different story though.
No matter what you order at Starbucks your getting ripped off…then they want a tip for pouring coffee lol
Thats what youre supposed to do. The baristas actually jam the cup full of ice and fill it with liquid after so you get 2 sips.
Isn't .. liquid.. water... ml... vs... frozen water... ml... the same... ml... :D you pay for the shots not the "consistency" of the water. Starbucks sucks sure.. but I don't think Ice is the scam :D Unless it's a milk drink.. than you get ice = water instead of the precious milk/alternative.
2:58 … fun reminder for when he says he’s 7 inches
I love how enthusiastic Mat is in this video. Hope to see more of that in future
Yeah he was really funny in this video. Prob the only time he’s ever made me laugh
I think Mat got into the coffee.
agreed@@Install312
While I worked at Dunkin my manager was a jerk and started charging people extra for no ice or simply wouldn't fill it all the way. It was such a stupid rule that most of the staff decided to not follow it since we didn't feel like arguing with customers. So not sure if it's the same for Starbucks, but a manager might try to pull the same thing there if you ask for no ice if they have control over their store prices.
I heard that we (starbucks) now have to fill the milk all the way for the iced espresso drinks if customers ask 🙃. Supposedly, people would threaten baristas over that shit. Either way, I do fill it up and say, "I recommend ordering this as a latte next time. 😁 So that way, you can get that extra milk"
If there is a app I’d recommend ordering that way. Starbucks app won’t recognize the extra no ice or light ice charges. Not sure about the other places though.
That manager sounds insane I hope they get therapy
It started being the same at Starbucks a year ago cause I used to work at these and yeah my staff was the same. We said nah we not doing that lame stuff we’re giving them a good cup of coffee. like what’s better? A happy returning customer? Or an upset customer that will never come back because we were anal about no ice.
Starbucks in general shouldnt be charging you for extra/light ice. Source: a barista for 3 years@@Fujoshi1412
Matt is a fun and respectable person. When are we getting more Good News?
@@Kastleyhow? haven’t they been friends since school?
@@MamadNobariyour right but stop being right
When Matt used his chest to ask if Starbucks is a scam I immediately became hooked
As a Starbucks barista, we fill the liquid content to the top line of the cup and add ice until the cup is full. If you get light ice, we put more coffee but less ice so your cup is still full, and the opposite for extra ice. If you want to save the most money, order your drink with no ice and a side cup of ice (preferably a larger size than the no ice drink). Congratulations, you saved money
Edit:
That’s at least how my store works. Some stores won’t fill the cup all the way if you ask for no ice.
Also for iced drinks (these measurements regard the entire cup, including coffee, ice, and add-ins):
Tall: 12oz
Grande: 16oz
Venti: 26oz
Trenta: 30oz
wtf is "oz"
@@Gadottinho ounces
@@Gadottinhomeans go back to school
@@DiogenesTheCynic. Or they're from a country that uses the metric system. You know, like most countries.
It seems like most places in the US just throw a bunch of ice in all their drinks - not just starbucks.
Former Starbucks barista here! The lines on the cold drinks is what we use for measuring the drinks. If you have a black coffee we go to the top line then add ice. With cream we measure to the middle line for the coffee, fill to the top line with cream, then the rest ice. You’re welcome y’all :). Also the bottom of the iced drink cups tell you how many ounces are meant to in the drink in total. This is only true if you have no ice though
Are these drinks just espresso shots and then you add water to the top line or how do they make it? If they all have the same amount of espressos and the amount of water is different, then it's not really a scam lmao
@@spoiledmolokofor an americano it is always the same amount of shots for that particular iced drink. Tall is 1, grande is 2, venti is 3. Then fill to top line with water and add ice. It’s is viturally always the same for any other drink like lattes, macchiatos ect, with some slight difference for some drinks like the shaken espresso drink having the scope of ice (which are different size scopes for their respected sized cup) shots of espresso, and extra flavored stuff like syrup ect added to a shaker, then shaken and added to a the cup with the milk poured on top at the end. But for almost every single drink that is iced has easy to follow measurements to have a uniform consistency between all Starbucks. Hope that helps :)
omg that's not how I did it when I was a partner lol. I would fill to the top line, do ice but then leave a little room for the cream. I was never explicitly told that the middle and top lines were for cream or no cream. And I worked at 7 different stores in CA and AZ 2012-2016
@@MasterLink924 Actually the shot numbers have changed for iced americanos. I'm a current partner and for iced americanos (and shaken espressos) it's tall-2, grande-3, venti-4. But for regular iced lattes it's tall-1, grande-2, and venti-3 😊
I think the takeaway here is that 5$ for a cup of coffee in itself is the scam
You're not paying for the coffee, you're paying for the television ad 😉
^Protect this person at all costs, they know too much
@@jack-a-lopiumbetter word would be ur paying for the brand
i switched to dunkin a bit ago and you get more coffee than a venti for less than half the price for a medium where i live, best decision i’ve made
bingo
As someone who worked there, the iced coffee is brewed stronger to account for the watering down of the ice. It is less liquid volume, but generally the same intensity of flavor once mixed. And yes, bigger cups get more liquid. Basically the amount of liquid in the next size up + ice could fill the last size down without any ice. So a grande no ice is basically the same amount as a venti with ice. This is not the same for trenta, since it isn't so much of a "scale up" as it is just an extra large venti.
edit - Also, the iced cups are slightly larger than the hot cups to allow for ice to be added.
As a coffee fan who recently got a job at Starbucks during college, I don’t drink Starbucks coffee or espresso. Also the quantity/quality of your drink really depends on who makes it, and how much they like you.
As a barista at Starbucks, we pretty much follow a guideline, the top line of the cup is where you stop filling up (if iced drinks) and then fill it with ice, other ice drinks that use a shaker then we have sections of the shaker of how much you should put (ie juice, lemonade, base, sections or if just milk all the way to that section that makes up juice, lemonade and base all together) and then fill the shaker with ice with the ice section
If it’s hot drinks that’s not brewed coffee we just fill it the milk and foam (unless they asked for no foam) and fill the entire cup, we also have little indicators on the pitchers that you should fill this amount of milk depending on the size so at most you just get like 20% foam and the rest milk, espresso and any other add on that drink comes with
Also the bottom of ice cups give the total amount of ounces that can fit into the cup
Hot ones don’t really tell you the ounces and the way to differentiate the cups of you can’t tell just by looking at them you look at the bottom and they have a line of mixed letters but the verse first letter will tell you whether it’s venti, grande, etc for example: VDH36SD - the V means it’s venti, G38SFE - the G means grande, etc.
people get upset a lot about ice all the time i think the price of vsc foam and more shots is the true scam
@@ty7442 The whole business is a scam, you can make 200 cups of coffee at your house for 6$.
@@saltiney8578 that's a bit farfetched but i get your point
@@ty7442 ? how so a can of coffee is like 6$ and it makes like at least 20 pots of coffee each of which can be like 10-12 cups of liquid
The venti cold cup is 24oz in size as opposed to the venti hot cup which is 20oz flat. The extra 4 is to compensate for the ice I believe.
same with grande being 12 and 14
you'd think but somewhere in the last few years I've been working at starbucks I noticed they raised the price of large iced variants as opposed to their hot drink counterparts.
As a former Starbucks employee, a larger size is definitely more liquid. The quality of you drink will definitely vary per barista though. And you can always just ask for less ice lol.
Matt and Charles out here with the hard hitting documentaries this world needs
As a professional caffeine addict who chooses starbucks as my source of consumption, this is the revolutionary content I've been searching for
@catzlolthelegendshut up catz lol the legend
bro is gonna suffer an heart arrhythmia in the near future 😭😭
Guys, the big thing to remember is to drink black coffee so it's healthier. The heart palpitations are normal
@@HaidoroTTVmore predictable without all the sugar.
@catzlolthelegendGo somewhere else. The reason that everyone dislikes you is.A)You're a spammer.B) You're an angry dude that is miserable and won't try be desent, or respectable to anyone. Try it you'll feel good and smile.😊
I am a Starbucks barista and the amount of ice we put in drinks is crazy, most of the time you're only getting half the cup of actual drink and the rest is just ice, I've started just putting light ice in drinks because I feel bad that people are paying $8 for a latte that's half water.
It's why when I worked there I used the grande scoop for ventis.
Because fuck corpos and their greedy bullshit.
What happens if you don't do that? Does the manager try to discipline you? Maybe Starbucks needs a whistleblower. :p
@@Dontstopbelievingman the problem usually isn't any of the other baristas or the manager most of the time, its the way the corporation itself handles things that is what makes it bad
I've been beating myself up about this ever since they first opened in Oregon. Thanks for figuring it out, I can sleep easy now.
Charlie made a Esports team , Comic series (godslap), Merch, Video channel and more. Yet he can't pour a coffee from cup to measuring jug
it had me laughing my ass off. Also i've come to love seeing matt he's a legend :)
If I’m paying $8 for coffee that shit better be handcrafted by the coffee gods
Starbucks literally stated that they dont care about the quality of their coffee. thats why their coffee beans are the cheapest you can find. people pay for it anyway. so the coffee that you buy for 11 dollars cost them around 50 cents to make. thats how they stay in business by idiots like you who keep buying crap.
That shit better make me piss caffeine that I can drink back up
whit that amount, thats like 10 cups of coffe or even more at home
Charlie never fails to tell us when something is or is not a scam
I think its worth mentioning, the amount of syrup and coffee (measured in number of espresso shots, probably?) isnt changing with each cup. The ice constitutes a significant amount of water, which would otherwise just be included, except in liquid state.
espresso is akin to hard alcholhol shots compard to nbeer.
regualr coffee is like beer, weaker caffiene and cheaper, weaker taste
shots of high rpoof alchol are stronger but you drink FAR FAR less. espresso holds more caffeine than coffee beans - but something like a Latte ( made with espresso ) is 70% moilk.
just to note, the drink without ice should come up to the top line that is on the side of the cup, then ice is scooped in which will bring the liquid to the top. if you ask for less ice you get more drink. There are also 3 different sized scoops, a tall, grande, and venti scoop. Starbucks wants everything to be consistent as possible hence the lines on the cups, and the different sized scoops.
The different sized drinks also get different amounts of pumps of syrups and different amount of espresso shots. For a hot Latte for example, syrups pumps for Short-2 Tall-3 Grande-4 Venti-5. Espresso shots go, Short and Talls get 1, Grande and Venti get 2.
If it was a cold latte the amount of syrups and shots are the same apart from venti ice which gets an extra of each.
If you ask for less ice, your drink would still be filled to the top but the amount of espresso and syrup would remain the same but the amount of milk would increase.
finally some one who thinks
When they measured 8 inches, I questioned my self-doubt... But then the centimeter knocked me back to reality.😥
I like how everything Charlie posts whether it’s covering a topic a review or a tier list, it’s always worth watching
Could your comment be any more generic than this?
@@emmetriley22 welcome to the comment section on Charlie's videos. All just generic ego stroking as far as the eye can see.
his vids are like my daily news lmao
I have worked at Starbucks for about 3 years now and yes, it is 100% a scam. Everything is belligerently expensive, and I will honestly use any excuse to give people their drinks for free. You can easily make a much better version of essentially everything we have for much cheaper at home, as SB brewed coffee isn't very good to begin with. Whether the official policy is enforced depends entirely on the individual store. At my store we have been told to never say no to anyone for any reason, regardless of the customer's aggression and franchise policy.
Edit: Originally we were told to do things like not fill the cup all the way if someone asked for no ice, but once our customer connection scores went down, we were told to abandon policy entirely :)
Chaotic-Good barista?
@@mattj5772 More so out of spite than any sort of good nature.
So if someone said they want their drink for free you gotta say yes?
@@phelan8385 Essentially if it would avoid any sort of agitation on the customers part, yes. I might be able to tell them no the first time, but the moment they start to argue I am supposed to give them whatever they want.
What if the customer is really horny and wants to meet you in the back?@@AzoaR
The amount they don't plan for any of these "scientific" videos is incredible.
seeing matt so happy makes me happy and the video becoming way more funnier. Matt is funny!
Matt is my spirit animal. :D
you know its a scam when you cant even say small
Amen brother
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You still can 😳 I refuse to correct people unless if they ask. Hell, I even read back the order with whatever size names the customer uses. I'm glad it's not standard to correct people instantly
I wanna know why a size called “Tall” is very short and small
I love the strainer. They completely missed the hole on the lid being far smaller than ice.
If you like Coffee, you stay away from starbucks
The biggest problem I have with Starbucks is that the price of a tall iced coffee is $1-$2 more expensive than just a tall hot coffee. Why get charged more for getting less coffee?...
Just be a man and drink hot coffee
@@FLiPtHeSWI7CH☠️
Not watching a charlie video is like missing my monthly shower
Space those showers out a little more
Well thanks to Charlie now we know that Starbucks is in fact a scam
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Mf ask for no damn ice
Allegedly
@@_conqueredSHUT up
I'm probably gonna get fired for this, but yes. Even working there is a scam lmao. They claimed that they'll pay for your college, but only if you're going to ASU 🙃
With Charlie’s long hair and influential reach, the best marketing Starbucks could do is make a temporary special edition logo cups where it’s Charlie replacing the siren or woman in the logo.
Are you guys putting into account the melted ice that add to the coffee before they strain the coffee because I'm guessing it had to have been awhile from store to filming so mild melt ice might make a difference.
Exactly ! That’s my first thought. That and what about evaporation?
I was just about to say the same thing!!
Either way, theres still less than your paying for
@@cppctek considering both it is likely that results did not change in a significant way as to skew the conclusion.
@@gillegan7189 Technically, if you let all of your ice melt, you don't lose anything. Water makes up like 98% coffee anyway🤷♂The ice's displacement still represents total volume.
Just ask for no ice if you think its a scam.... then drive home and put your coffee in the refrigerator LoL.
You can literally just order it with no ice and ask for a second cup of ice and they’ll give you the ice cup for free. Same with how their ice waters are usually free. I used to work at a mall and was constantly doing Starbucks water runs for my managers.
Asking for no ice is extra
Well apparently they won't fill the cup with coffee cus they're told not to
I used to work at these places for years and that used to be true until last year. You ask for no ice you get charged which is dumb because what If I just don’t want ice and no extra coffee? Also some baristas will just be lame and follow that rule so good luck on that. Unless you’re like a regular or someone chill to them and they give you a full cup and ice on the side. This is what I used to do personally bc screw Starbucks. Even after they started charging for that I still didn’t follow that stuff. Never used to charge for additions either cause that’s whack lol
funny, cause i ordered ice water one time and they told me ice water is 3 dollars. i told them "fuck that" and walked out and the girl got pissed off at me that i didnt spend 3 dollars on ice water.
maybe she was trying to pocket the money or something idk. or she was just being an ass that day cause she was having a bad day, but after that i never tried to order water from starbucks ever again
What? That's crazy. Water is absolutely 100% free from the tap. Only a bottled water costs anything. That girl was definitely just being a bitch.@@brandimullins8813
Shockingly, the price per mL/oz gets better as the size increases. Like with.. basically anything you buy lol.
But was still good to see you do actually get more drink at a bigger size. Never tried to test it myself. Closest "test" I did was, on two different days, I got a cup of ice, a large cup and an extra large cup. I filled both with ice. My 20oz Dr. Pepper fit to the same fill level for each cup. So, I wouldn't doubt if some places the larger drink is actually the same amount of drink in a bigger cup.
I'm having flashbacks to every group science and engineering project. Wherein I'm the only one trying to get true measurements and data and my classmates are giggling and spilling mah science!
I LOVED this video guys. PLEASE do more like this. May I suggest calories per dollar at fast food restaurants
not a bad concept but calorie testing takes WAY longer and is way more annoying, like maybe they'd wanna do it though they do have a FACILITY.
I took a bunch of anatomy and food science courses in college as electives and basically you have to just burn the thing to a cinder and measure the heat it gives off, but like most food isn't really "flammable" or doesn't burn quick at least.
As a chemist and coffee snob I found this hilarious. 😂 fun with the boys.
Matt has convinced me. Charlie needs to make a line of kimono robes
Charlie discovers ice in a cup means less drink in that cup. Truly groundbreaking content.
So this is accurate on drinks like Iced Coffee or Cold Brew (ones that are only one mixed ingredient). However, usually the dilution is set with the ice in mind for the ideal strength, so no ice would be stronger than ideal. On top of this, you can also get free refills on iced coffee/hot coffee with the app so no need to modify it in the first place. This won't work for milk and espresso drinks since no ice will result in more milk to espresso (weak milky drink)
Was looking for this comment. The whole idea with the way the recipe works (certain amount of ice+ certain amount of coffee liquid) is so that if you get two cups of different sizes (let's say tall and grande), and you take a sip out of one cup and then a sip from the other cup, they would taste exactly the same, it's just a matter of how much of a drink you want. And it's easy to lose sight in these type of "lab experiments" that ice IS WATER. So whether you get a cup of coffee without any ice or a cup of coffee with ice, you still get the same amount of "liquid" (meaning, water), so the only thing different between the two cups is how much coffee you're getting, which is probably less than $0.01 in value - and the store DOES let you ask for no ice if you want, meaning, you're more than welcome to request a "stronger" drink (no ice meaning more coffee), that is certainly something Starbucks is letting you do, and if you're thinking that you got more "bang for your buck", it really depends on how you define what bang is. Did you get less than $0.01 value? That's really not that great a deal. Most Americans donate their extra cents to reduce the clutter in their pocket anyway, that tells you how little a cent is worth to most consumers. Is it getting a stronger coffee either because you're trying to get a higher buzz or prefer the taste of the cup better? That's great, go for it, Starbucks lets you do that, the same way that you can ask for more pickles on you burger at McDonald's and they don't charge you for that. At the end of the day, with ice or without ice - you're getting the same amount of water, a possibility different flavor due to slightly more coffee extract, and hardly any difference in cost to the store. It all comes down to you preference in flavor, there's really no scam here any way you try to look at it.
At my local store you don't even need the app. I just go up and ask for a refill
@@themorrigan7702 if it's a licensed store like Target/Kroger or campus ones, they might be able to do that since they're ran by third-party companies. However, they can get in trouble for doing that at official stores and could very well be fired for it unfortunately
@@thejuicyroma I watched a video comparing different "coffee chains" drinks and value one time. It was espresso based drinks with Starbucks being 26oz and the other being 32oz but they didn't get that the 32oz wasn't really a value since of how diluted it was with milk. They all use similar amounts of espresso, it's the milk/water that changes so the bigger ones are just less espresso on the ratio. They're not likely to use more espresso because they want to keep them at certain caffeine levels for the default ones and if they use coffee instead, it's going to result in a similar mixture as the espresso ones
so basically, when there's ice in a cup, there's less room for the drink. Nobel prize winning science right here folks.
Ya I can't tell if they are serious or not.
But they are checking the amount of ice in the different sizes, on whether one is a better deal or not.
@@Sanootch Of course not.
I don’t know if you have shit in your ears or something, but like 30 seconds in they explicitly mention that they are comparing the amount of ice BETWEEN the different sizes.
I also love how they are taking their time. Letting the ice melt. Not pouring all the cups at the same time...
This just reminds me of working at a bar, and people would ask for stuff like "Whisky and coke, no ice"
Expecting to get more Whisky, instead of more coke. Or get mad that their drink doesn't taste very strong
🤣
former starbucks worker here. The cup says on the bottom how many oz it is with ice. So just the volume of the cup. Also, we put the coffee in the cup FIRST. it goes all the way to the 2nd line and then filled to the top with ice.
Having worked at Panera I can promise you that when you order a drink we gave you more ice based on the size of the cup. Ask for no or light ice wherever you go.
i remember here in Australia starbucks tried to come into our market for a while, but we already have such a strong coffee and cafe culture (a lot of Mediterranean immigrants decades ago), that we were just like it's bad.
we have so many options for even just mediocre café chains all over the place. and if u just want a quick sugar and coffee hit u can just get a Dare or even energy drink.
Yeah, here in Italy too. We’re a coffe country, all in all (espresso, americano, cappuccino, grande, venti, macchiato - all italian names, and so many more). Starbucks has tried opening in Milan, in Rome, and maybe somewhere else, and the only reason it hasn’t failed is tourists. Only people that go there. Italians stay far, far away. Prices are insulting compared to what we’re used to (5 euros for a cappuccino is ridiculous) and the quality is okay at best. Nothing more. I think most places they’ve tried opening have failed
Just get a maccas coffeee
@@umwelting my dad wanted starbucks at italy last year when we were at rome and the nearest one was an hour away
So funny, I actually learned about that in marketing school on why you should always do research before trying to expand into a new market.
Actually, the sad reality is that even though Starbucks in other countries still suck, it’s surprisingly higher quality than the one in the US.
I tried a Starbucks in France, and it tasted miles better than the Starbucks in the US.
Like WTH, the freaking restaurant originated in the US.
Same goes for McDonalds. In Canada and Japan, its higher quality meat. Hell, Canadian McDonald’s sell Angus Beef patties.
Hi, barista here at the one across from UT. The sizes are designed to sell the largest, because of the minimal price difference. The ice is measured per size, and we measure the drink amount as well. The ice is to keep it cold (obviously) but to also melt and add to the drink over time, I guess. You're paying for the amount of drink. Light ice = less time to be cold but more drink.
This comment rubbed me the same way as if someone were trying to sell me on joining primerica
What’s UT?
@@thsudy is the school Charlie went to
One thing I can absolutely confirm is that all the harsh taste is masked by syrups.
It tasted good, until one day I ordered something and forgot to add Vanilla syrup.
I didn’t like the drink and they decided to remake my drink as per policy. It tasted better, but only because the syrup.
To confirm my assumption, I outright bought the official vanilla syrup from my local Starbucks and made a latte at home with my Rancillio and purposefully made a bad shot by gridding too fine.
It surprisingly still tasted decent after adding their Vanilla.
Btw, if anyone’s curious, a bottle of their syrup with pump is ~$13 and at least for me, a bottle lasted me half a year.
Definitely buy the syrup if you like Starbucks, because with it, you can’t really taste the difference between home made and store bought.
How did you get your store to sell you the syrup
Where do you buy the syrup tho
For those wondering (starbies supervisor here), we are able to sell our vanilla, caramel, and I believe the classic (standard sugar syrup) syrups. They have barcodes on them that the barista/employee at the register can scan to bring up the item and it's price. Just ask the employee at the register that you'd like to purchase one and they will retrieve the bottle for you. We cannot sell any syrups/sauces that do not have a barcode. Not all employees know that/realize that since it isn't taught during training, so if your person at the register doesn't know, just tell them the bottle has a barcode on it they can scan.
However, they can deny selling them to you if they have low stock and can't afford to sell the bottle instead of using it to make product ie: whip creams, sweet creams, etc, which all require vanilla syrup and a lot of it. Also you can request a pump as well when you purchase the syrup, however they won't always have extra to be able to give, but always feel free to ask and see if they do.
Hope this helps!
I am not taking any advice with someone that uses syrup on their cofee,lol.
@@fy4072 keep drinking ur bitter ass coffee earl I like mine swallowable 😭
You forgot to consider that the greater the surface-area-to-volume ratio of the size & shape of the coffee cup, the more ice will have melted by the time you measured it!
Aye honestly, gotta consider the dilution of the coffee and ice
Charlie really sent me into a flash back with that quick “what are the numbers mason” 😂
I just avoid this problem altogether by ordering my drinks without ice no matter where I go, except for in actual restaurants because then it doesn’t really matter. The drinks I get are still nice and cold because the water used to make the drink is cold already, it just won’t stay as cold for as long as it would if you got it with ice. I originally started doing it just because I hate watered down drinks and I could almost never finish a drink before the ice melted too much and made it taste gross. If you really wanna make the most out of it and you need ice for your drink, then order your drink without ice and then also ask for a cup of ice. That said, idk how this would work with a place like starbucks because I don’t ever go there.
as someone who worked at starbucks the amount of ice is INSANE. but if you ask for "light ice" we just go down a size for the according cups. like if you ordered a grande and want light ice, we put a tall size amount of ice. there should be lines on the side of the cup that we use for guides for how much ice (or that could be for the shakers, i cant remember). always go no ice
Hey guys, thoughts on a chewing gum tier list? They could be rated based on flavor, duration, and how large of a bubble can be made from them
I'll tell you rn that fruit stripes is a 10 for flavour and 0 for everything else
@@SimBits 100% but the gyattttdayuum flavor tho
The most epic gum in the world is real natural mastic gum from Greece.
I LOVE it, I will chew that everyday until the day I die.
It is even healthy for you and it helps my digestion a ton.
You can even swallow it in small pieces for even more digestion benefits.
Every piece taste a tiny bit different and it is all natural tree sap.
Try it out, get the biggest pieces you can find and enjoy.
If you like chewing gum I can not imagine you will not love it.
Big league chew better be S tier if they do lol
The only negative about it is flavor duration if I remember right.
scott cramer did a video on this which was entertaining!
2:49 isn't that cm not inch?
I used to work for the siren in high school. The thing about the coffee is it's about as good as mass produced coffee can be. There are stores that exist called "Reserves" where they sell specialty small lot coffees that are worth the dollar. But they definitely overprice for how much they produce
I like how he references the squirrel from Over the Hedge drinking an energy drink instead of Fry drinking coffee when they're talking about coffee.
I went to a boba shop and ordered a large without ice, and watched them fill a small cup with the tea, and then dump ice in the large cup, and then pour the small cup of tea into the large cup with ice. On top of that, they were slow, so I didn't want to hold up the line of customers to fix the injustice
These are my favorite Charlie videos. I genuinely LOVE their energy when they fool around like this ❤❤❤
You know it’s a scam when you ask for no ice and the drink is halved
The longer they wait, the more the ice melts and goes into the coffee.
They have recently started charging extra when you ask for light or no ice. After the Tik Tok trend caught on and everyone started doing it they got more greedy. Some employees won't charge you but its a new thing they have started doing.
Always,some of the best ground breaking journalism in our history.
Keep it up boys
Charlie Never Fails To Make Me Finish.
I MAKE SPECTACULAR UKRAINIAN CONTENT
,
Better stay away from him during November
I MAKE GOOD UKRAINIAN CONTENT
,
milk
first
No ice & then a cup of just ice in the side, best option.
The smart thing would be to get a iced coffee, but ask for the ice to be separate that way you get the largest amount of coffee and then add ice when needed
Spread the curd, spread the word. 🗿
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@catzlolthelegendyou are not Better than him
@@OshyTheGamer thanks I guess
@dont_Read_Profile_Photo. npc comment
This feels like a middle school science fair presentation
Her: He's probably thinking of other girls.
Him: