The Cheapest Drink You Can Order At Starbucks

A cup of joe just doesn't cost what it used to these days, and if you happen to regularly buy your coffee at Starbucks, then you certainly know this is true. It's pretty easy to walk into Starbucks for a simple cup of coffee and walk out with a venti caramel latte peppermint unicorn frappuccino that has eaten up half your weekend spending budget. Essentially, Starbucks isn't exactly known for being a bargain, and it's definitely not getting any better — in 2018 they raised the price of a regular coffee between 10 and 20 cents depending on the location (via NBC News). 

While it's certainly not difficult to concoct a pricey drink from the Starbucks menu, which drink at Starbucks is the cheapest? 

That would be a cup of tap water. Ohhh, you wanted to know the cheapest coffeehouse drink? Okay, let's find that out...

Well, a small or "tall" cup, if we're sticking with Starbucks lingo, of plain Jane black coffee, will set you back (pre-sales tax) between $1.95 to $2.15 depending on where you live. If your Starbucks is in Wheeling, West Virginia, that cup of black coffee is probably going to cost a little less than if you ordered it in Beverly Hills. Now, according to Lifehacker, you can get a slightly cheaper — and we do mean "slightly" — cup of black coffee if you order the "short" size. This drink size isn't listed on the menu, but your Starbucks barista should know what you're talking about and promptly deliver that black coffee in an 8-ounce cup, as opposed to the tall's 12 ounces. 

Now according to the blog Fast Food Price, the absolute cheapest drink on the Starbucks menu is an organic apple juice box for $1.75. Maybe this fluctuates based on location, maybe not, but it's only 20 cents more for a tall black coffee and probably pretty close in price to a short black coffee. Do with this information what you will on your next coffee date, just don't blame us if you don't get a second date if you set the spending limit at apple juice or a short coffee.