Holiday Starbucks Best & Worst Choices

Well they're back .. the holiday treats and drinks at Starbucks. On November 3rd they sprang into our lives festive cup and all, beckoning to us with their siren song of good cheer. You may think that they are a no-no for anyone looking to keep their sugar consumption under that of a pre-teen sleep over, but at Hot Mess we believe in balance and want to share our dos & don'ts for enjoying a seasonal tradition.

The Starbucks Christmas Drinks 2022 lineup includes the Peppermint Mocha, Caramel Brûlé Latte, Chestnut Praline Latte, Irish Cream Cold Brew and, returning for its second holiday season, the nondairy Sugar Cookie Oat Latte. Missing in action this year is the Egg Nog Latte which I cannot- and will not - forgive them for anytime soon.

So let's first take a look at calories & sugar in a first in a grande size 'as-is-no-changes' drink.

Peppermint Mocha: 440 (54g of sugar)

Caramel Brûlé Latte: 410 (48g sugar)

Chestnut Praline Latte: 330 (38g of sugar)

Irish Cream Cold Brew: 200 (16g sugar)

Sugar Cookie Oat Latte (non-dairy): 270 (28g sugar)

The worst offenders are the Peppermint Mocha and the Caramel Brule Latte with a whopping 440 and 410 calories in a grande.

Since the recommended calorie consumption in a day for a women is about 2000 for those looking to maintain their weight you can see that between 16 and 20% of your daily calories could in fact end up coming from one drink. Not to mention the affect on your blood sugar from some of these syrupy beasts.

Now let's look at ways to lighten things up a little so you can still enjoy the seasonal treats without over indulging.

5 Ways to Lighten Up

Drink Size:

One of the first ways to lighten up is to change your drink size. If you change literally nothing else, just by switching from a grande to a tall, you save from 50 to 100 calories and if you go short it's another 80-90 calories.

Grande Size to Tall Size

Peppermint Mocha: 90 calorie savings

Caramel Brûlé Latte: 100 calorie savings

Chestnut Praline Latte: 60 calorie savings

Irish Cream Cold Brew: 50 calorie savings

Sugar Cookie Oat Latte (non-dairy): 80 calories

Milk Choice

If you aren't picky about the creaminess by dropping to a non-fat milk you will save about 60 calories in a Grande size.

Whip Cream

Now here is where I would never scrimp and save as I love my whip but if you are not a whip cream gal dropping the whip off a grande would save you 110 calories and off a tall 60 calories. You can also ask for 'light' whip and that will save you about half the calories of the full serving.

1/2 Sweet

One of the biggest ways to drop the calories and the sugar is to start asking for 1/2 sweet that is where you just get 1/2 the pumps of flavour syrup you would normally get and since most of these drinks are so sweet I feel like I could get diabetes just from talking about them, half sweet to me is still plenty sweet.

The general rule is that there is 4 pumps of syrup (20 cal per pump) in a grande and 3 pumps in a tall and 2 in a short. So you could save up to 40 cals just by going 1/2 sweet.

The two exceptions to this is the caramel brule syrup which is 50 cals per pump, that's 200 calories in syrup in the grande. And the peppermint mocha that uses 4 pumps of mocha at 35cal per pump AND 4 pumps of peppermint at 20 cals per pump. That is an insane amount of sugar to consume in one day let alone in one drink. This easy cut to calories is a no-brainer to me as the 1/2 sweet is still plenty sweet.

Now of course you can get sugar free syrups if you like but not all the drinks use syrups that come in a sugar free option.

200 cal and under Ideas

So let's say you just do a light whip (-60 cal) , half sweet (-100 cal), non-fat milk (-60 cal) caramel brule latte you could change it from a 410 beast to a 200 cal treat.

Tall Peppermint Mocha, half sweet with regular milk and light whip. You save 110 cal is syrups, and 90 cals going to a tall then 30 cals in whip cream and you end with a 210 cal treat.

Try a misto! My favourite holiday drink is a 2 pump peppermint americano misto (americano topped with steamed milk) coming in at 150 calories and all the yumminess of the season.

You absolutely can enjoy these holiday favourites with just a few simple changes you can make them much healthier and still get that red cup vibe to enjoy one of the seasons special moments.