Coffee shops’ hot drinks with 25 spoons of sugar

WHEN you treat yourself to a creamy hot chocolate or spicy mulled drink, you know they will contain a fair amount of sugar.

But consumers would be shocked if they realised how much is in some trendy speciality hot drinks sold by high street chains.

For a survey found that they can contain up to 25 teaspoons of sugar – three times as much as a can of Coca-Cola.

Experts say coffee shops such as Starbucks, Costa and Caffe Nero are helping fuel the national obesity crisis by selling large portions of these sweet hot drinks.

A survey by campaign group Action on Sugar (AoS) found that the grape mulled fruit drink from Starbucks is the worst offender.

The largest size, venti – which is 20 fl oz or 568ml – is made from grape juice and chai (spiced tea), topped with orange and cinnamon, and contains 99g of sugar. This is equivalent to 25 teaspoons and more than three times the 30g recommended daily maximum for an adult.

Next most sugary is Starbucks white chocolate mocha, which is topped with whipped cream.

A venti serving of the whole milk version contains 73.8g or 18 teaspoons of sugar – more than double the amount in a 330ml can of CocaCola. A 20 fl oz or massimo serving of Costa’s chai latte has 79.7g of sugar, equivalent to 20 teaspoons.

A large mocha from KFC has 58.8g or 15 teaspoons and a caramelatte from Caffe Nero contains 50.6g or 13 teaspoons. Because sugar is so soluble, it is easy to dissolve a large number of teaspoons in a small amount of liquid, although some of the sugar in these drinks is from natural lactose found in the milk.

An AoS survey of 131 flavoured hot drinks found 98 per cent would receive a red label for high sugar content under guidelines drawn up by the Food Standards Agency.

It is calling for new legally binding targets requiring supermarkets and manufacturers to cut the sugar content in food and drink.

AoS, which also wants the Government to impose a ‘sugar tax’ on sugary products, said coffee shops have an enormous influence because there are more than 18,000 UK outlets selling an estimated 1.7billion hot drinks a year.

It found that 35 per cent of the speciality flavoured drinks contain the same amount or more sugar than Coca Cola. AoS chairman Graham MacGregor, professor of cardiovascular medicine at Queen Mary University of London, said: ‘This is another example of scandalous amount of sugar added to our food and drink.

‘No wonder we have the highest rates of obesity in Europe. David Cameron now has all the evidence to make the UK the first country in the world to stop the obesity and type 2 diabetes epidemic.’

Kawther Hashem, a registered nutritionist and researcher for AoS, said: ‘Coffee shop chains must immediately reduce the amount of sugar in these hot drinks, improve their labelling and stop selling the extra-large serving sizes.

‘ These hot flavoured drinks should be an occasional treat, not an everyday drink.

‘They are laden with an unbelievable amount of sugar and calories and are often accompanied by a high sugar and fat snack. It is not surprising that we have the highest rate of obesity in Europe.’

Starbucks said: ‘Earlier this year we committed to reduce added sugar in our indulgent drinks by 25 per cent by the end of 2020.

‘We also offer a wide variety of lighter options, sugar-free syrups and sugar-free natural sweetener and we display all nutritional information in-store and online.’

Costa said: ‘ We take the nutritional balance of our food and drink very seriously and we have already taken significant steps to reduce the sugar content of our ranges.

‘We intend to continue improving the balance of our product offerings. We will be setting salt and sugar reduction targets for 2020.’

‘Unbelievable amount of calories’