About a decade back, I was in a downtown Starbucks, waiting to pick up my drink, when a pair of middle-aged Italian women retrieved their cappuccinos (or, rather, cappuccini) from the counter. One took a sip, and then promptly spat it back out.

“They burned the beans,” she told her friend in Italian.

“Mine too,” the friend agreed.

So they informed the baristas, and asked them to pull their drinks again. A second time through, the first woman took a sip and made a face.

“Still burnt!” she exclaimed.

At which point, I jumped in with the remnants of my college Italian, to try and explain that all Starbucks coffee was going to taste burnt, because, for whatever reasons, they’ve built their entire brand around roasting their beans to a tasteless crisp.

This was before the wide spread of ‘third wave’ coffee, so I couldn’t offer those women much in the way of alternate suggestion. But, even today, with many better coffee options all around NYC, I still sometimes end up in a Starbucks, whether because I’m on the road or just lazily settling for the closest option that has ample seating and reliable wi-fi.

And, when I do, I always order the same thing: a short cappuccino.

The short cappuccino isn’t on the menu, but they serve it at pretty much every location (barring some airport and mini-store setups). It’s a remnant of the early days of Starbucks, when they served drinks in two sizes: an 8oz Short and a 12oz Tall.

In the years since, keeping up with the general increase in American portion sizes, Starbucks added the Grande (16oz), then the Venti (20oz), and eventually the utterly ridiculous Trenta (31oz).

Somewhere along the way, they dropped the original 8oz Short from the menu, picking up flack for their smallest size therefore being called ‘tall’, but pushing up the price of the average ticket; a good trade-off. But, secretly, they kept the Short cups around. And, it turns out, a short cappuccino remains the best drink Starbucks makes.

According to the World Barista Championship rules, a cappuccino is a “five- to six-ounce beverage,” the same size served in Italian cafes. That’s because a cappuccino ideally has roughly equal parts espresso, milk, and foam. Given the physical chemistry of milk, there’s a limit to the volume of micro-foam that will hold before it collapses back on itself. So as you move to larger sizes, you end up with roughly the same amount of foam as in the Short size, and a drink that’s basically burnt-coffee-flavored milk.

Hence the short cappuccino. It’s the closest thing Starbucks sells to what you might find at a real Italian coffee bar, and it’s also one of the cheapest options on (or, rather, not on) the menu. Bevi!