Tasting Starbucks 'New and Improved' Items
"The cookies ranged from ehhh to scrumpdiddleumptious."
Stopped by a Starbucks lately? You may have noticed, or tasted, something new. In an effort to take on a more wholesome image and win back customers, the company has introduced a new and improved selection of food items under the campaign "Real food. Simply delicious."
This means a revamping of all their baked goods (no artificial flavors, artificial trans fats, artificial dyes, or high-fructose corn syrup), and the launch of several new items, like the Vivanno smoothie and Protein Plate (cheese, hard-boiled egg, whole-wheat bagel, grapes, apple slices, and peanut butter). At a recent media preview, I tasted some of the "improved" baked goods on offer at Starbucks nationwide.
First up, the Vivanno smoothie. I tasted the Strawberry Banana which has a banana, strawberry purée, milk, and whey protein powder. This was one of my favorites. I could definitely taste the chalkiness of the powder, but you can request less or omit it entirely. The fruit flavor comes through, the payoff of the simple ingredient list. Other Vivanno flavors include Orange, Mango, Banana, and Banana and Chocolate. [See our previous taste test where the two stand up to Jamba Juice smoothies.] This one only comes in a grande (16 fluid ounces).
The Marshmallow Dream Bar is a standard Rice Krispies Treat. There's no big flavor surprise here—just marshmallowy crispies to enjoy. What did surprise me, however, was the calorie count. It went down from 440 calories to 210 calories in the new version. This is partially due to the slightly smaller serving size, but still, the reduction was impressive.
I like my banana bread a bit rough; I want chunks of nut, big banana flavor, and a moist interior. The Starbucks version? It's OK. The crumb was too fine, too few nuts, and it just tasted like a generic piece of banana bread from anywhere.
The cookies ranged from ehhh to scrumpdiddleumptious. The Chocolate Chunk Cookie was redesigned to be chewier and softer, but I found it too soft and definitely not chewy enough. It's soft in that not-a-homemade-cookie way which I really detest. The Outrageous Oatmeal cookie, on the other hand, was my favorite by far. It's perfectly chewy and crisp, with one-fourth cup of dried fruit in every cookie. The Indulgent Chocolate Cookie (a cookie-brownie hybrid) is for chocolate lovers with its rich, chocolate flavor and fine crumb.
Many of these changes were inspired by suggestions from My Starbucks Idea, Starbucks' attempt at listening to customer feedback. You can share, vote, and discuss these ideas, some of which Starbucks has already implemented. Pro bono consulting for Starbucks, put that on your resume.
Related
Starbucks Introduces a New Line of 'Healthier' Breakfast Foods
Starbucks' Vivanno Vs. Jamba Juice Smoothies
Oatmeal Is Starbucks' Most Popular Food Launch
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13 Comments:
Can't wait to try these! Does anyone have a link for nutritional info on the protein smoothies?
aprilring at 4:06PM on 07/14/09
@aprilring It's on the Starbucks website
Grace Kang at 4:12PM on 07/14/09
Rice krispies, banana bread, cookies.. These are new products?
mandarin at 4:58PM on 07/14/09
@mandarin - They're new as in redesigned, reformulated...
Grace Kang at 5:04PM on 07/14/09
I found something new and wonderful there last week- the Blueberry Oatmeal Bar- phenomenal. Simple, sweet and the perfect bite size. And it was less than $2.00!!!
j9gini at 5:26PM on 07/14/09
Know how you reduce the calories in a rice crispy treat?
You remove all the taste. Which means you remove the butter/salt.
Instead you are left with marshmallow, rice crispy cereal and air (notice the hunks of marshmallow, they are fluffy sugar air).
A good one is made with butter, and is slightly savory. You can add something like dried sour cherries to further battle the overpowering sweetness.
A bad one is tooth achingly sweet and bland.
peekpoke at 9:59PM on 07/14/09
I know I'm taking a bit of a left turn on this, but I wanted to make a comment here about Starbuck's ice cream which can be found in any local grocery. I had a few coupons last week for $2.00 off a pint, and in a divine bit of happy circumstance, Starbuck's pints were on sale for $3.00 at Kroger last week, and so off I went, three coupons in hand, and walked out of there with three pints, only spending $3.00! I bought the mocha frappucino ice cream and the java chip. I have not tried the java chip yet, but let me tell you, I fairly made love to that pint of mocha frappucino. It was creamy, smooth, with a perfect ratio of chocolate swirls to coffee swirls. I have not set foot in a Starbucks in a long while (my wallet cannot handle the stupendous prices) so I can't speak for the quality or taste of the new food items to be found in-store -- but I am happy to say that the products their peddling at the market are quite tasty, and not full of preservatives or nasty unpronouncable non-food items...It was, by far, the best ice cream I've had in a long while. I may even splurge on it every now and then, coupon or not! If you've not tried it yet, do so!!
juliebugsmama at 9:06AM on 07/15/09
I'm glad that the 'bucks is attempting to get a little healthier. But I would put money on the fact that the calorie content of absolutely everything is still totally outrageous. If you're attempting to watch what you eat and drink- go online, check out the cals for Starbucks' drinks and snacks and prepare to be blown away. The amount of calories and fat in a piece of their coffee cake is comparable to a burger from McDonalds.
porkydickens at 9:19AM on 07/15/09
Had the "new" banana bread there...you never miss those trans-fats until they're gone. Dry, lifeless.
bessfour at 9:28AM on 07/15/09
How "serious" is serious eats when the focus is mass produced dreck available at only a select 14,000 places?
swagv at 9:44PM on 07/15/09
@swagv Serious Eats is about great-tasting food, wherever you find it. That said, there are tonnes of places I'll look before going to Starbucks.
piccola at 10:55PM on 07/17/09
I remember last year when Starbucks and others removed trans fat and replaced it with tropical oils, which if you are not familiar, are very high in saturated fats which if you are not familiar are one of the key reasons trans fat became so prevalent. But guess what? Tropical oils are trans fat free and "all natural," which gave them a healthy halo despite the fact that they were doing an injustice to consumers who felt that the switch was better for their health.
So now when I read about and see the in-store marketing materials at Starbucks showing how they are removing high fructose corn syrup from their baked goods, I feel that once again Americans may be mislead into confusion because this switch somehow implies that products sweetened with other sweeteners, such as sugar, are healthier.
As a Registered Dietitian (RD) and an adjunct nutrition professor (NYU, Queens College, Columbia University/Teachers College), I can say with all certainty that everyone is a marketing movement to ban high fructose corn syrup, yet there is no scientific basis to suggest that coffee cake made with sugar is ‘healthier’ than one made with high fructose corn syrup.
As an RD I can confirm that the nutrition science community generally agrees that Americans should cut back on all sweets and calories and that high fructose corn syrup is nutritionally no different from sugar. It is the calories that count. Even the American Medical Association in June 2008 helped put to rest misunderstandings about this sweetener and obesity, stating that “high fructose syrup does not appear to contribute to obesity more than other caloric sweeteners.”
High fructose corn syrup may have a complicated-sounding name, but it is essentially a corn sugar that is nutritionally the same as table sugar. High fructose corn syrup is not sweeter than sugar; and high fructose corn syrup, sugar and honey all contain the same number of calories (four calories per gram).
This is a marketing not a health issue. Consumers are being misled into thinking that sugar is healthier than high fructose corn syrup, which is simply a kind of sugar. They are nutritionally the same and both are fine in moderation. A sugar is a sugar, whether it’s honey, high fructose corn syrup, table sugar, or fruit juices.
Kyle Shadix, MS, RD
Registered Dietitian, NYC
ChefKyleRD at 10:20PM on 07/19/09
Sounds delicious. But the same taste can be bought, for less when you purchase the A&P 150th anniversary chocolate chunk cookies in their commerative tin.
These are the best tasting cookies ever. So sneak some in your pocket next time you head over to Starbucks, While waiting in line, savor their chewy chocolate heavenly taste.
apteafan at 2:37PM on 08/28/09