Starbucks to offer Mini Frappuccino: Is small the new grande?
Bucking the trend against ever-larger portion sizes, Starbucks has announced that it will now sell a smaller version of its popular Frappuccino coffee drink. Starbucks says the idea came from thousands of customers requesting a smaller size.
This photo provided by Starbucks shows the Mini Frappuccino. Starbucks says it will start selling Frappuccinos in a miniature size starting on Monday, making it the latest company to court customers by going smaller.
Anna Carson/Starbucks/AP
After hearing from its customers, Starbucks agrees that bigger isn't always better.
On Monday, the coffee giant introduced a "Mini" Frappuccino, which it will offer until July 6. At 10 ounces, the new beverage size is two ounces smaller than Starbucks' "tall" version.聽
says that the smaller sugary concoction arose from "My Starbucks Idea," a website that allows people to submit and vote on new ideas for the coffee chain.聽More than 6,000 customers weighed in with suggestions for the Frappuccino, with many requesting a smaller one, the company says.
Introducing a smaller version of the聽summertime favorite runs contrary to the well-documented trend in the United States of food retailers offering ever-larger portions, with direct implications for public health.
Starbucks, for its part, originally had only two coffee sizes: the 8 oz. "short" and the 10 oz. "tall." Over time, the chain removed "short" from its menu, (although ), adding "grande" (16 oz.), "venti" (20 oz.) and eventually, for iced beverages, "trenta" (31 oz.).
As portions have expanded, so have American waistlines. According to the National Institute of Health, food portions in聽restaurants聽have double or tripled in the聽previous聽two decades, which public health experts have pegged as a key contributor to a among children and adults. 聽
The聽Centers for Disease Control has found that聽, a figure that has more than doubled since 1980.
But the trend toward supersizing finally may be reversing. A 2014 Tufts study in overall portion sizes in fast food restaurants after 1996. And聽according to the National Restaurant Institute's "" survey, respondents ranked smaller portions as the 20th most important trend in choosing a place to dine out. 聽
鈥淲eaker casual-dining operators ,鈥� John聽Gordon of the Pacific Management Consulting Group聽told Full-Service Restaurant Magazine in 2012. 鈥淭he customers notice it over a period of time. The better practice in restaurants would be to be able to have a half size or a whole size.鈥�
Still, the benefits of smaller portions can be easily canceled out by customers simply purchasing more food. In 2008, when the sandwich chain Quiznos introduced $2 "sammies" that had 200 to 300 calories in November, , in addition to chips and a drink, according to the Associated Press.聽
"We sensed a bit of a backlash on the full plate-ization of America, [and] we think it's a great response to both the tug of the tight economy and the tight waistline," 聽Quiznos chief marketing officer Steve Provost told AP at the time.
"People in focus groups tell us they want control, they want to eat lighter. The fact that they are buying more than one and are buying a chip or a drink with us shows us they are choosing to fill up their plate again."