A viral TikTok video revealed how Starbucks measures its drinks and how to ensure you get light ice in your drink.
User Tony Vara (@varatony) started the video by asking, “Have you ever gone to Starbucks and you order something with light ice and you feel they completely ignored your request for light ice and they just put a bunch of ice anyways?”
@varatony Starbucks Tips & Tricks: Ordering “light ice”🧊 #starbucks #barista ♬ original sound – tony vara
Tony explains why that happens. He reveals a large cup with marks of where the drink, puree, and ice are supposed to be, showing a large section for the ice and how the employees must follow those lines.
Then, Tony gives a visual presentation of this by making a drink, revealing a third of a cup for the juice, the other third for the lemonade/fruit, and more than half for the ice. He claims that Starbucks has a designated large scoop of ice for venti drinks. If you request light ice, the employees use half of the scoop.
Tony’s advice for people who want light ice say something along the lines of, “Can I only get, like, six pieces of ice?” However, Tony wrote in an overlay in the corner of the video, “disclaimer: some locations may charge you extra for this though so may not work everywhere.”
The video went viral, receiving over 455,000 views since July 11. Many employees had different reactions to the suggestion of how to get light ice.
“Babes I promise the only reason they “ignore” the light ice request is cuz they probably forgot lol. Happens to me but I always fix it,” one worker wrote.
Another user said, “whenever someone asked for a specific # of ice cubes i ALWAYS gave them a scoop i dont have time to count ur ice ma’am.”
“Girl that’s too much….if people ask for light Ice and get like let’s say a grande I’ll use the venti drink lines and ice up to the grande line…” a third wrote.
Other employees shared their experiences with customers who asked for specific amounts of ice cubes.
“I used to work at Starbucks and people would ask for like 6cubes. and you know we can’t hand pick them and people would lose their minds over 1xcube,” one shared.
“Naw cuz I will count the ice after some lady literally counted it out for me and made me remake it,” a second said.
Another wrote, “i have a regular that will count out 4 pieces of ice and will hand it back if there’s more.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Tony for comment via TikTok comment and email and Starbucks via email.
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