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Starbucks has 3x the sugar of a whole Coke in some drinks
- DarkTree 11y agoI'm not surprised some Starbucks drinks have a ton of sugar, but the 3 cans of Coke worth definitely puts it into perspective. I grew up drinking my coffee with sugar and cream, but eventually stopped using sugar, and then ultimately drinking it black. If you can wean off adding compliments to your coffee, you will most likely acquire a taste for the bitterness of coffee. Once you begin loving the true taste of coffee, it becomes a much more fun experience to try different types of coffee, it's much healthier, and taste much better to me (now).
- agumonkey 11y agoMy body rejects processed foods nowadays, I'm somehow forced to eat raw everything. It's funny how so many tastes there are. Now I now there's enjoyable tastes outside the usual junk food. But, I miss the feel of carb + sugar + fat, it really does push all your brains button :)
- hissworks 11y agoHow do avocados fare as a substitute?
- agumonkey 11y agoPretty fine, but it's not a common thing to eat though. Raw salad, carrots and tomato, with a pinch of salt and vinegar. A bit of meat. One thing I recently discovered is that whole grain mueslies do feel nice on your mouth without triggering pain in my case. Maybe more fibers that help feeling satiated.
- miseg 11y agoI've tried weaning myself off strong milky coffee, but I like the taste of the milkiness. I get what you're saying, and will try to reduce the milk content over time.
- baldfat 11y agoI put a ton of sugar in my tea, but tea is so diverse I enjoy all the different kinds. I think I am now down to only one teaspoon per 8 oz.
- TarpitCarnivore 11y agoThe amount of sugar you were putting in your coffee is probably not close to comparable to that in these drinks. > Once you begin loving the true taste of coffee The "true" taste of coffee is how you prefer to drink coffee. Don't forget that a lot of people like to drink milk based drinks (latte, cap, macciato, etc) which are technically not showing the "true" taste of the coffee being used. Yet for someone reason no one thumbs their nose at them.
- davidw 11y agoItalians find people who drink a cappuccino after about 11 in the morning a source of amusement. It's a dead giveaway that the person in question is a foreigner. The good side: they're amused but not rude or snotty about it.
- Rainymood 11y agoI once ordered a cappuccino after 11, I got something else instead (I believe an espresso/americano?) and I was really confused as I thought the barista had misheard me. Then someone explained it to me afterwards and I felt kind of silly
- talmand 11y agoWhy is that something to feel silly about? I would think that if it is your harmless custom it is rude for someone with a different custom to make something negative out of it.
- acangiano 11y agoSome of us gave up the fight and will now have a cappuccino whenever. (Paese che vai, usanze che trovi.)
- cvwright 11y ago> Yet for someone reason no one thumbs their nose at them. You should come to Portland sometime. :)
- stuaxo 11y agoIt helps to have coffee that is actually decent, which you don't get in Starbucks. A lot of low quality food and drink seems way less satisfying, so people make it up with quantity.
- Someone1234 11y agoI don't drink Starbucks (too expensive for me) so this is a legitimate question: I thought Starbucks coffee was meant to be good/high quality? If it isn't why are people spending over $3/cup when McDonald's and others has $1/cup coffee? I'm legitimately asking, I'm not into the whole Starbucks scene.
- pkaye 11y agoI'm not a coffee drinker but I guess people go there for the convenience and consistency.
- navait 11y agoIf you are really into coffee, mass produced is cool to hate on, and the best is what you make yourself. I enjoy the coffee, but it's not the best I ever had. Of course, in my area it's the only option over Dunkin Donuts or Mcdonalds, which I do not like.
- stcredzero 11y agoHacker Dojo used to have Dunkin Donuts coffee, along with a precise posted procedure for brewing it, which seemed to work quite well. ("How to brew coffee like a BOSS!") For me, for DIY: Aeropress and recently roasted beans. Grind yourself.
- mattdotc 11y ago>If it isn't why are people spending over $3/cup when McDonald's and others has $1/cup coffee? I can't speak for every Starbucks customer out there, but I always assumed the reason is that it's a status symbol. To some degree, they want to be seen with the cup. They haven't tried the competitors, so they assume Starbucks must be very good to justify the price. If they really enjoyed coffee for coffee's sake, they'd probably be going to an independent shop for their drink. I think Starbucks' coffee isn't terrible, but I definitely prefer to brew it myself or spend the same amount at a smaller cafe, preferably if they roast their own beans.
- syntheticnature 11y agoMind you, if you like the taste of coffee, Starbucks isn't that great, unless you like burnt flavors even in your medium roasts. I've heard their new Clover machines, at some locations, offer better flavor -- but Starbucks' regular coffee seems tailor-made to at least drive you to their espresso products, if not well into the land of sweetened drinks.
- acchow 11y agoThe Clover is phenomenal, but if you're stuck using Starbucks beans on them it's still not gonna taste great...
- syntheticnature 11y agoI'm given to understand the way to have it is to get single-origin beans with the Clover. I haven't given it a try yet.
- agentgt 11y agoI would have to sort of disagree that black coffee is always going to give you more of a "true" coffee taste. Adding fat and sodium for most things generally exemplifies the taste and flavor (not sugar). For example adding tarragon mixed with butter and you can really taste that tarragon. I have noticed this with coffee. Adding a little bit of cream definitely brings out more subtle flavors in the coffee (depending on the coffee and also no where near the level that starbucks adds.. just a little will do). But I generally drink my coffee black as well for health reasons.
- stcredzero 11y agoIIRC, the amount of sugar a typical drink has in it has gone up by 100% since the 80's. I'd swear that soft drinks had about 20 grams of sugar in them back then. Now there's typically almost 40 grams in a soft drink, and Honest Tea passes as a "lighter" drink with only 19 grams.
- TheOtherHobbes 11y agoIt's maybe worth mentioning that Type 2 Diabetes - which is mostly avoidable - can lead to blindness and lower limb amputation. http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Diabetes-type2/Pages/Introduction.aspx http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Diabetes-type2/Pages/Introducti... When I feel like reaching for the sweets or over-sugared drinks I stop to wonder if it's worth losing my legs or my eyesight.
- Ntrails 11y agoI really dislike this line of shock tactics. You can drink a hot chocolate. or a can of coke, or eat a chocolate bar every now and again with no real change in your risk of diabetes - assuming you aren't already ticking the other risk factors (genetic, overweight, etc). Blanket calls for abstinence with threats of disease has not, typically, been as effective as helping people make properly informed decisions.
- ChrisArgyle 11y agoTheir measurements appear to include whipped cream but this isn't mentioned in the article. For example: the pictured Starbucks Venti White Chocolate Mocha is accused of 18tsp sugar but Starbucks nutrition info[1] says 15tsp (55g) sugar without whipped cream. [1] https://news.starbucks.com/uploads/documents/nutrition.pdf https://news.starbucks.com/uploads/documents/nutrition.pdf Edit: incorrect quote
- ChrisArgyle 11y agoAlso, this means that the Venti White Chocolate Mocha actually contains less sugar per unit than Coke: 12oz Coke contains 39g sugar[1] -> 39g/12oz = 3.25 g/oz 20oz White Chocolate Mocha contains 55g sugar -> 55g/20oz = 2.75 g/oz [1] http://www.coca-colaproductfacts.com/en/coca-cola-products/coca-cola/ http://www.coca-colaproductfacts.com/en/coca-cola-products/c... edit: formatting
- maxerickson 11y agoThe picture says "18 teaspoons".
- ChrisArgyle 11y agoUpdated, thanks
- GrinningFool 11y agoBloody hell - 5 tbsp of sugar in a single drink? How can you taste anything beyond the sugar?
- abrowne 11y agoYou can't, that's the point.
- S_A_P 11y agoI don't know how you could drink some of those Starbucks "coffee" drinks and think they were anything other than milkshakes. There are also some misconceptions around the caffeine content of these coffee drinks. Most espresso is around 30-50mg caffeine per shot, so a 20oz frappacino will have 60-100 mg caffeine vs a 20 oz coffee which will have ~350-400 mg caffeine.
- switch007 11y agoAccording to Starbucks [1], their espresso 'solo' is 75 mg per shot and a 20 oz brewed coffee has 410 mg (not sure how because 410/75 = 5.46 shots) [1] https://news.starbucks.com/uploads/documents/nutrition.pdf https://news.starbucks.com/uploads/documents/nutrition.pdf
- binarymax 11y agoMaybe the 'solo' is ristretto and the 20oz is lungo?
- asgfoi 11y agoHow sad it is that the can of coke is used as a comparison. It almost makes it look like a reasonable drink. The World Health Organization has recently suggested cutting the recommended sugar intake for adults in half, to about 25 grams, around 6 teaspoons, of sugar for a normal weight adult a day. Here is my favorite site that shows the amounts of sugar cubes in various unhealthy food: http://www.sugarstacks.com/ http://www.sugarstacks.com/ According to that information you can drink a half can of coke (most left one in the picture in the link) to satisfy that daily need. That implies that all other food you eat that day will not include any sugar! That is an impossible standard to reach. Solution, don't drink drinks with sugar.
- maxerickson 11y agoI think it's the other way around; people have begun thinking of soda as problematic because of the sugar. So making it clear that a drink exceeds a coke in sugar puts the drink over in the problematic bracket.
- merraksh 11y agoAn initiative here in the UK has an app for counting how much sugar is in any product with a barcode: http://www.nhs.uk/change4life/Pages/change-for-life.aspx http://www.nhs.uk/change4life/Pages/change-for-life.aspx
- tracker1 11y agoI think that's referring to refined sugars... as a diabetic, I tend to pay more attention to glycemic load... making an effort to keep it under 40 (max) at any meal, and under 100 per day, which is hard... iirc, the sugars/day should be around or under 100g for most people, with at least half of that coming from natural, unrefined sources (fruit/veg). Absorption is a big piece... fruit smoothies are much easier to absorb, for example than whole fruit, which contains fiber which inhibits absorption. For the most part, if you don't get more than half your calories from any macro source (carb, protein, fat, alcohol), and have some variety to your diet, once you get enough protein to support your body, calories are calories. Some people have medical conditions that mean they should limit some sources... but that's the exception. The issue is that people don't pay attention to these things.. or consider the calories of drinks and snacks in their daily input... if most people wrote down everything they consumed for a week, calculated the macros, and tracked their weight a couple times a day, it would be eye opening. I tend to reach for water more often than not (2-3 liters or so a day) and about 1 liters of other beverages a day.
- dogma1138 11y agoWhat a clickbate... It's probably important to note that it's not only "flavored" drinks, milk has quite a bit of sugar in it naturally, the "special" milk which is used by some coffee places has about 9% fat and 2-3% carbohydrates which makes it worse than coke on it's own, normal whole/semi-skimmed/skimmed(skimmed usually have higher amounts of sugar to make it not taste like well the water it is) milk has about 5g per 100g of sugar which is more than half the sugar content in coke, so when you add even a "bit" of sugar to a milk based drink you get well more sugar than what coke has for the same volume. It's also probably worth noting that a Starbucks "Venti" size is more than double the the volume of a coke can to begin with so about 680ml (espresso shot which is used as the base is only about 30ml) of milk + couple of sugar spoons to make it sweet can easily get to 2-3 times the amount of sugar in coke without even having to go overboard with crap like whipped cream and syrups.
- merraksh 11y agoI'm not sure where the click-bait is. The title of the article is consistent with the content, i.e., many beverages at Starbucks have a lot of sugar content. Whether that comes from adding sugar or adding ingredients which are naturally sweet is not the point of the article. > It's probably important to note that it's not only "flavored" drinks, milk has quite a bit of sugar in it naturally, True, but is milk the sole responsible for the high sugar content in a latte? > the "special" milk which is used by some coffee places has about 9% fat and 2-3% carbohydrates which makes it worse than coke on it's own, Well, if "special" means "processed", then this again proves the point of the article. No matter where or how the sugar is added, these drinks have quite a lot of it. > skimmed usually have higher amounts of sugar to make it not taste like well the water it is Confirms the point above. > It's also probably worth noting that a Starbucks "Venti" size is more than double the the volume of a coke can to begin with so about 680ml (espresso shot which is used as the base is only about 30ml) of milk + couple of sugar spoons to make it sweet can easily get to 2-3 times the amount of sugar in coke Perhaps not for the same volume. Many fast food chains sell sodas in cups that are 2-3 times the volume of a 33cl can. > without even having to go overboard with crap like whipped cream and syrups. Again, consistent with the article's point. The numbers are there, and they seem to be higher than the recommended daily amount of sugar intake.
- at-fates-hands 11y agoI was never a big coffee drinker, but when I did I'd drink a "foo-foo" coffee drink which was usually a turtle latte or something similar. I figured if it was only once in a while I was fine. Then I read the nutritional information and nearly fainted: https://www.cariboucoffee.com/menu-nutrition/beverage-food-detail?id=1475&type=drink https://www.cariboucoffee.com/menu-nutrition/beverage-food-d... 630 calories, 65g of sugar, 21g of saturated fat, 195mg of caffeine. If you do the conversion where 4g of sugar = 1 teaspoon, then this drink has 16.25 teaspoons of sugar which is pretty close to the figures in the article. Needless to say once I read how much sugar was in these drinks, I promptly stopped drinking them altogether.
- feintruled 11y agoWow. It certainly gives their "Life is short. Stay awake for it!" slogan a rather dark twist!
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- paulbennett 11y ago> Real chocolate - dark, milk or white - melted into steamed milk and combined with our rich espresso and caramel. Topped with whipped cream, caramel sauce and Snickers® I think you can probably work out from the description that its not going to be a healthy drink.
- jimmaswell 11y agoNo need to be dramatic, there will be no real consequences to having these once in a while. These look good actually. I'll try to get one now.
- VLM 11y agoWhat impresses me is decades ago a lot of food chemistry work went into figuring out weird tastes to mask the taste of caffeine and so on. So that's why Mt Dew and energy drinks taste the way they do, to cover up the bad flavors, make it drinkable. More recently there must be a lot of research going into how to pack 25 spoons of corn syrup into a drink and still make it drinkable, or even taste good. It is impressive purely from a food science / chemistry standpoint, no matter how unhealthy it may be.
- gavazzy 11y agoI mean, most of Central America figured out how to cover the bitterness of coffee 50 years ago -- supersaturate it with sugar. And in Cuba where sugar is free, in most drinks there's almost as much sugar as there is espresso.
- rdancer 11y agoTo be honest, food science has been making people survive and thrive on disgusting barely edible things since the first monkey threw a rat on fire. "Here we have some rotting carcasses and roots, dried seeds, with more rotten things for flavour. Let's have a feast!"
- steanne 11y agoWhy is this a surprise? They have nutrition information for all their products on their website. Not news.
- JustSomeNobody 11y ago> Starbucks said it has committed to reduce added sugar in its "indulgent drinks" by 25% by the end of 2020. IOW, not really. But come on, these drinks are non-necessary items. Who cares? And besides, who looks at something with whipped cream and doesn't imagine it being sugar and calorie laden?
- makecheck 11y agoThe sugar or calories in any particular item generally isn’t a problem. The actual problem is the rate of consumption. People drink stuff like this in ridiculous quantities, and then make it even worse by developing a daily habit. I also find it weird that you don’t often see people set aside “half” of their beverage to finish it later; rather, they sip and sip and sip until it’s gone. By that logic, simply reducing the size of the container that you order should let you drink “all” of it and still feel satisfied. (Or, pour some of it into a cup for immediate consumption, and put the rest away. Same with food.)
- tracker1 11y agoTrue enough... I always considered Starbucks as more of a "coffee flavored milk shake" more than coffee... it's easier to put into perspective that way. Then again, I tend to have maybe one every month or so.
- jkestner 11y agoThe real problem is the rate of consumption. This is why fruit juice is about as bad for you as soda. It's like eating several oranges, without the fiber that would fill you up quickly.
- montecarl 11y agoI see so many people who drink fruit juice because they think its healthy. When I eat breakfast at hotels in Europe they often serve fruit juice and coffee, but not water!
- oliv__ 11y ago'CNN discovers that Starbucks' "coffee" drinks have insane amounts of sugar in them' No, really?? Quick, revolt, share on Facebook and choke yourself on kale shakes for breakfast! Welcome to America.
- rorykoehler 11y agoI almost collapsed from drinking a white choc mocha from Starbucks about 5 years ago. Body went into full shock mode it was so sweet. Got dizzy, headache, the lot.
- ghouse 11y agoYet here in the US we continue to think it's good public policy to subsidize the production of sugar and corn syrup.
- mrtron 11y agoStarbucks has 0% the sugar of a whole Coke in some drinks.
- castratikron 11y agoThis is why I support the FDA's effort to get an "Added Sugar" section on the nutrition label. I think it would really help people control their sugar intake: http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/GuidanceDocumentsRegulatoryInformation/LabelingNutrition/ucm385663.htm http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/GuidanceDocuments...
- infogulch 11y agoWhat exactly counts as "added sugar"? Would, say, juice count as "added sugar"? What if it was juice concentrate? What if it had very little of its' own flavor? How easy would it be to get around this division?
- acangiano 11y agoAnother worthy effort would be including % of daily value for sugar, which is not normally present on nutritional labels. Seeing "350% daily value" might lead some to reconsider their purchase.
- jonesb6 11y agoI've recently started a diet and one of the most helpful things I've been doing is looking up the nutritional facts of meals and drinks that'd I'd usually write-off as "too insignificant to matter". One of those was a medium Starbucks mocha which turned out to be ... ~360 calories without whip. That might seem like an insignificant amount but when you're going for a ~600 calorie deficit it's about two thirds of a standard meal. Since then I've been sticking to a medium coffee which is ~5 calories, and the caffeine is a total appetite killer. Win win.
- mynameisvlad 11y agoReally? You thought a Mocha would be insignificant? It's like 3 pumps of chocolate syrup plus a bunch of whole or 2% milk. That's calorie heaven right there. Stick to black coffee or switch to tea if you want to reduce calorie counts. Most teas are under 10 calories which is fantastic.
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- kazinator 11y agoTo my taste buds, Nescafe Gold instant coffee blows Starbucks away. Starbucks coffee has to be drowned in sugar and cream to mask the acrid acidity.
- glossyscr 11y agoThey tested the Venti size which is more like a bucket, click-baity header.
- powera 11y agoI hate to be "That Guy", but how is this relevant to Hacker News? Is it just because people who write code also drink coffee?
- Quanticles 11y agoYou can dissolve up to 2 grams of sugar into every 1 gram of water, Starbucks is just trying to help push the boundaries on that science.
- awqrre 11y agoThey are trying to solve planet warming by controlling population?
- chestnut-tree 11y agoHere's the link to the findings on the Action for Sugar website where you can see the full list of drinks included in their survey: http://www.actiononsugar.org/News%20Centre/Surveys%20/2016/170865.html http://www.actiononsugar.org/News%20Centre/Surveys%20/2016/1... For comparison, the recommendation from UK scientists is that no more than 5% of daily calories should come from added sugar (approx 7 teaspoons): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-33551501 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-33551501
- xiaoma 11y agoStarbucks wins on caffeine by a huge margin, too.
- rdancer 11y agoIt doesn't matter which way the calories come in (unless your diet is unhealthy). This concoction has about the same energy density as whole milk. "Don't drink your calories"[1] is of course a wise maxim to live by. Source: Starbucks is required by law to make available nutritional value of their drinks, and they do[2], just like any other food producer; use that data if you have problems with your diet. [1] http://nutritioninmotionllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/dont-drink-calories.jpg http://nutritioninmotionllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/d... [2] http://globalassets.starbucks.com/assets/409e621c271444f8b63474b4848ecb21.pdf http://globalassets.starbucks.com/assets/409e621c271444f8b63...
- wodenokoto 11y agoI'm not saying starbucks drinks aren't sometimes overloaded with sugar, but aren't large drinks at starbucks considerably larger than a can of coke?