10 Low-Calorie Starbucks Drinks
Sip, and savor, these healthier treats.
Illustration via Getty Images/Kraska
Infamous for their pumpkin spice lattes and sucking your wallet dry, there’s no denying that Starbucks can be one of the best guilty pleasures.
Their menu is big and there always seem to be new options popping up. While this is great for our taste buds, it’s not always great for our health. With so many options, it can be hard to know which drinks are better choices than others. Luckily, Starbucks lists all their nutrition facts online and it is easy to mix and match menu items to make healthier alternatives of your favorite drink order.
Treating yourself to a not-so-healthy drink every once in a while is essential for maintaining a healthy balance in life, but when it comes to your daily caffeine fix, it’s important to choose a drink that’s on the lower side for calories, sugar, and fat.
To help guide you on your next Starbucks trip, we put together a list of low-calorie Starbucks drinks.
*All nutrition information is based on Grande drinks and 2% milk, unless specified*
1. Black Hot Coffee or Iced Coffee
Start simple. These two beverages are as simple as coffee gets. They have 0-5 calories and zero sugar, fat, or carbs. If you need some milk and sugar, add your milk of choice and try to stick to one packet of sugar.
If you need your espresso fix, an Americano is the way to go. It’s like black coffee, except made by mixing espresso shots with hot water. You can treat an Americano like regular coffee, adding in the milk and sugar of your choice.
3. Cappuccino
Cappuccinos have more foam than milk as compared to a latte, which makes them a lighter choice at 120 calories and 10 grams of sugar from the milk. Because of the milk, there’s also an additional eight grams of protein.
4. Nitro Cold Brew with Sweet Cream
Despite being made with a vanilla sweet cream top, this drink contains only 70 calories and four grams of sugar. It does, however, contain 18% of your saturated fat intake (3.5 grams) so just be wary of that.
Blonde espresso, which has a smoother taste than regular espresso, is mixed with milk for the perfect iced coffee. According to Starbucks it’s “not too strong, not too creamy, but just right.”
Macchiatos contain two shots of espresso layered in between milk and milk foam, as opposed to a latte or cappuccino which contain only one shot of espresso. These are naturally sweet from the milk and contain no additional sweeteners.
7. Iced Blonde Vanilla Bean Coconut Latte
For a dessert-like treat, this drink is on the lower side for calories (120) and sugar (14g). The drink is made by mixing coconut milk and vanilla bean powder with ice, then topping it with a shot of blonde espresso.
This drink is lightly sweetened and is a mix of lemongrass, mint, and lemon verbena. If you don’t want it too sweet, you can always ask for it unsweetened.
9. Very Berry Hibiscus Starbucks Refresher
This is one of the lowest in sugar for the Refreshers drinks, containing only 14 grams. It’s mixed with fruit juice and real blackberries with the addition of Green Coffee extract for a boost of energy.
10. Brewed Tea
Starbucks has a lot of tea options, but many of them are loaded with sugar. If you want tea, your best bet is to go with freshly brewed, unsweetened tea that’s hot or iced.
