Sugar, you’re going down.
A registered dietitian from Florida is giving the scoop on how to halve the sugar content in a popular Starbucks blended drink with a few clicks on the Starbucks app.
“If you go on the Starbucks app, you can see all nutrition facts and ingredients, everything that goes into each order,” Marissa Arnone explained in a TikTok last month. “There are multiple sugar sources in one drink, so what I do is I remove the ones that I don’t want and I reduce others.”
Arnone demonstrated her technique with a tall, 12-ounce Matcha Crème Frappuccino.
The standard order comes with whole milk, whipped cream, two matcha powder scoops and two classic syrup pumps for a grand total of 300 calories, 43 grams of sugar, 12 grams of fat and about 50 milligrams of caffeine.
There’s sugar in the crème frappuccino syrup, whipped cream, classic syrup, and matcha tea blend, according to Starbucks’ nutrition information.
The American Heart Association advises men to consume no more than 9 teaspoons of added sugar a day (36 grams or 150 calories) and women no more than 6 teaspoons (25 grams or 100 calories).
Arnone said she subs in almond milk to prevent digestive issues but keeps whipped cream — “I’m not going to miss out on the whipped cream.”
She axes the classic syrup altogether and opts for one scoop of matcha instead of two.
“Some of their drinks have two [or] three scoops of matcha,” Arnone shared about Starbucks. “For me, personally, it’s too much caffeine and too much sugar because their matcha blend contains sugar.”
She said with her method, “I am able to enjoy the taste of a regular matcha without the jitters and the energy crash that would follow after having a super sweet drink.”
The Matcha Crème Frappuccino was high on Eat This, Not That’s 2023 list of the Starbucks drinks with the most sugar.
If you like matcha, there’s less sugar in an Iced Matcha Tea Latte (140 calories, 20 grams of sugar, 4 grams of fat for a tall) and an Iced Matcha Tea Latte with Oleato Golden Foam (340 calories, 23 grams of sugar, 26 grams of fat for a tall).
Both drinks feature two matcha powder scoops.
