Sweet Surprise: The Sugar In Iced Coffee From Starbucks
An iced coffee has precisely two ingredients: coffee, and ice. Right? Well, not at Starbucks. There, your tall iced coffee (unless ordered "unsweetened") contains a shot of simple syrup and around 90 calories. The website does note this, as Newsday reports; the iced coffee is described as a "Starbucks Terraza Blend, served chilled and slightly sweetened on ice." Still, since coffee in this country doesn't usually come pre-sugared, it's a little surprising.
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17 Comments:
starbucks sucks.
BrooklynBaker at 9:18AM on 06/26/09
As a former Starbucks barista, I highly recommend ordering an iced Americano over an iced coffee anyway. Not only does the Americano come straight up - and allow you to customize to your personal preferences - but it is also, IMO, a tastier drink. Americanos (hot or iced) are made to order, where as the iced coffee is made first thing in the morning and then allowed to sit all day (unless the store runs out & brews more). An americano also has a much cleaner, purer, basic coffee taste where as the Terraza blend has a very distinct flavor profile - which you may or may not like. Just a suggestion.
And for the record, the iced teas come sweetened as well unless you specifically ask for it unsweetened.
kimberlymac at 9:23AM on 06/26/09
Vente Iced Tea has four pumps of syrup. OMG. Thanks Kimberly for that tip.
TwoBarkingDogs at 9:50AM on 06/26/09
You can tell it has sweet stuff, it tastes sweet. duhhh.
seikel at 10:03AM on 06/26/09
I order iced coffee from there frequently, and never have i received it sweetened. They always, always, ask if I want it sweetened or unsweetened.
shamber at 10:22AM on 06/26/09
I actually learned this morning (@kimberlymac) that they were sweetened; I ordered yesterday and thought they might have messed-up and when I ordererd today: sure enough: sweetened.
I'll remember to order it unsweetened on monday!!
FYI - they still taste nummi
hungrychristel at 10:23AM on 06/26/09
I'll bet that there is no "sugar" in that drink, but there probably is a shot or two of high fructose corn syrup in it...
Three Rules of Selling Food/Beverages to Americans:
1.) Make it sweet
2.) Add bacon
3.) Make the portion HUGE
For a successful product, pick any two of the above...
Truff at 11:38AM on 06/26/09
@kimberlymac: Good suggestion! It's pretty true in every coffee shop I've tested it in: iced americanos always taste better than iced coffees. In my opinion of course. Iced coffees always seem more bitter, or in the case of Caribou, gritty. Hot drinks are another story, but iced americanos are so much better that it's worth the extra dime or so you usually have to pay compared to iced coffee.
skizziks at 12:23PM on 06/26/09
I see the problem here though, I once ordered an Iced Coffee at a cafe close by and not only did they sweeten it but they added a lot of cream to it. As I'm lactose intolerant I had to take it back. When I asked them for another one the manager gave me a look and said, "That's how we make them, I thought you knew." I promptly replied with "Really? I've never been to a coffee joint where they didn't ask you before adding sugar and cream to your coffee." I find it incredibly odd when other people want to doctor my drinks for me, unless I'm ordering something fancy and more complicated than coffee or espresso.
CrumbyPages at 12:33PM on 06/26/09
@shamber
When I worked at SBUX, I would always ask the customer if they wanted it sweetened cause many don't. BUT, the actual official drink recipe (yes, SBUX has them...they even send out little postcards for each drink...EVERY ONE, even steamed milk!) calls for sweetener. And unless something has changed, it's actually more than just a "shot" for a tall. I'm pretty sure it's 3 "pumps" for a tall (each pump adds 30 calories), 4 for a grande, and 6 for a venti. Although maybe that changed?
Anyway...you can always get it unsweetened. Just ask. Personally, I like it with half the normal amount of syrup...and I prefer hazelnut over their "classic" syrup. But that's just me.
lawofmurphy at 1:20PM on 06/26/09
Oh, also, this has been true for...what...ever? Why is this news all the sudden? The fraps are waaaay worse.
lawofmurphy at 1:21PM on 06/26/09
@Truff
You are SO right ahhahaha
hungrychristel at 1:23PM on 06/26/09
I like my coffee with sugar, so I'm okay with the syrup - adding regular sugar to cold coffee only results in the sugar settling to the bottom like sand. Though I do ask for it only lightly sweetened because the "official" amount of syrup is too much.
I hate, hate, hate, hot coffee being poured over ice cubes, unless those ice cubes are also made of coffee.
disbelief11 at 3:16PM on 06/26/09
4 in a venti? That's not right... it's 6. and 4 in a grande. I always ask for half as many, of sugar-free vanilla. Just enough to offset the bitterness of the coffee. It's my favorite drink because it's cold brewed, and I can never get that just right.
starbreiz at 8:31PM on 06/26/09
While the official Starbucks recipes are national, people's expectations of how coffee should come are highly regional. Here in PA, black coffee means without sugar, but just across the river in NJ (even in a border town like Phillipsburg) places that don't have separate condiment bars will add sugar to "black coffee" unless you say "no sugar." And they'll add milk too, if you just say "coffee." Over there people drink milk, so Starbucks baristas offer "room for milk," and here it's "room for cream" by which they meant what in Jersey is called Half-and-Half. (And never go against the flow - here the Half-and-Half pitchers constantly get emptied and replaced, while the whole milk sits out as long as allowed - 4 hours - or longer. In NJ the reverse is true.)
alexlv at 1:43AM on 06/27/09
Hmm, Starbucks has always made it pretty clear that their iced coffee is usually sweetened unless you ask otherwise - I mean, on their menu the iced coffee is 60+ calories (in NYC anyway). How else could coffee be so high in cals? But I've always had a barista ask me if I wanted my drink sweetened or unsweetened - until yesterday, actually. Perhaps they've changed protocol? It's something to look out for in any case.
teenagefoodie at 7:39AM on 06/27/09
I work a couple times a week at a Barnes and Noble cafe, and we serve mostly Starbucks products and use their recipes. However, I always ask if people want their teas or iced coffee sweetened. Automatically sweetening just seems like bad service to me. And I really should try an iced Americano. Never had one.
andresenj at 3:09AM on 06/28/09