Iced Trenta coffee? Starbucks tries bigger drinks

PHOENIX -- For some, 24 ounces of coffee just isn't cutting it.

Starbucks Corp. hopes to satisfy their hankering for more with a new 31-ounce drink dubbed the Trenta, Italian for 30.

The nearly quart-sized drink is available only for iced coffee and iced teas, none of those fancy lattes or mochas. It's currently being tested out only in 170 stores in Phoenix and Tampa, Fla., chosen because of their warm climates.

"Wow!" said Liz Owens, a 54-year-old Queen Creek, Ariz. sales manager when she heard how big the new drink is from a barista at a central Phoenix location.

Owens went for it, a Trenta passion tea. "I usually don't drink something this big, but I really like this drink, and whenever I finish it, I'm like, 'Gee, I wish I had some more,'" she said.

She paid $2.60 for the drink. An iced Trenta coffee goes for $3.30.

Arianne Garcia, a 27-year-old Phoenix resident in customer service, was sipping on her 24-ounce iced Venti coffee at the same Starbucks.

"This is all I can handle," she said. "A Trenta would be too much coffee."

Starbucks spokeswoman Sanja Gould said the company is trying out the new size in response to customers who said they'd like larger servings of cold drinks.

She said one of the unsweetened Trentas has less than five calories. "But even a sweetened iced coffee or tea in a Trenta cup would be less than 200 calories," she said.

Iced drinks of similar size already are available at the Seattle-based coffeemaker's competitors, Dunkin' Donuts and McDonald's.