Ahh Starbucks, the mecca of all things coffee and espresso concoctions. For me, Starbucks is just a place to grab a Grande Iced Coffee or a Venti ice water and nothing more. I’m not a fan of Frappuccinos, #basic lattes or flavored iced teas because 1) they’re all full of sugar and 2) I would rather just have a black iced coffee (I know, lame right?).
Gif courtesy of Giphy.com
Sometimes I have a hankering for a Frappuccino, but when I look at the menu and see the calorie count – with some drinks containing over 400 calories –I opt out and choose something less caloric because I’d rather indulge in something else, like Oreos. So, I did some research and calculations to figure out how many Oreos were in the most popular Starbucks drinks and here’s what I found.
Photo by Hannah Cooper
To calculate the number of Oreos in each drink, I divided the grams of sugar in each Starbucks drink by the grams of sugar in one Oreo. For example, one oreo contains 4.67 grams of sugar and a Caramel Frappuccino contains 66 grams of sugar. Therefore, the number of Oreos in a Caramel Frappuccino is roughly 14 (66/4.67).
All nutritional information comes from Starbucks’ website and is based on a grande size (16 oz) drink. The number of Oreos has been rounded to the nearest whole.
Espresso Drinks
Graphic by Hannah Cooper
The Latte, Cappuccino, and Iced Latte only contain espresso shots and 2% milk. The espresso doesn’t contain any sugar, so the sugars are only coming from the milk (if you don’t add any sugar).
However, the real kicker comes from the flavored drinks. One pump of a flavor, like vanilla, contains around 20 calories and 5 grams of sugar, but there isn’t just one pump per drink. Flavored latte drinks contain 3, 4 or 5 pumps depending on the 12, 16 or 20 oz drink. In doing the math, for a 16 oz drink, that’s 80 additional calories and 20g of sugar. And, in terms of Oreos, that’s a little over four.
Frappuccino Drinks
Graphic by Hannah Cooper
*All calculations are based on Grande sized Frappuccinos with whipped cream.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but there is a sleeve of Oreos (or more) in the majority of these Frappuccinos. In addition to the 2 flavor shots, Frappuccinos also require 3 shots of base, 1 pump of sauce, 3 scoops of inclusion and toppings. That’s a lot of extra sugar if you ask me.
Photo by Hannah Cooper
If you want to reduce the amount of sugar in your Frappuccino, you can ask for it to be made “light” which changes the base to a lower-calorie, Splenda-like base. There are also more options found on this Starbucks Drink Guide. If you want to be even healthier, you can even try and make your own version.
I don’t know about you, but I’d rather eat a couple Oreos than drink the sugary-filled equivalent. I’m sorry if some of you are feeling crushed, sometimes the truth hurts. But, if you still can’t break away from your favorite drink, you can always opt for a smaller size, fewer pumps or no whip to decrease the amount of sugar in your drink.
Gif courtesy of Giphy.com