Nuyoo.co compared the hot drinks from five major coffee shops (Costa, Starbucks, Pret a Manger, Greggs and Caffè Nero) to see which brands slip in the most sugar and contain the most calories before additional sugar is added by the customer.
The research found that the best option for a cappuccino with the least sugar is from Caffè Nero, with their regular cappuccino containing 65 calories and 5.2 grams of sugar.
On the other end of the spectrum, at Starbucks, a cappuccino contains almost double the calories and sugar (129 calories and 11.4 grams of sugar).
Once again, Caffè Nero takes the lead as the ‘healthiest’ for lattes, with 78 calories and 6.4 grams of sugar.
Starbucks makes the most calorific latte out of the five retailers with 143 kcal and 12.7 grams of sugar – roughly 3 teaspoons of sugar.
However, when considering a classic hot chocolate, Starbucks’ contains the least amount of sugar (22.7g) and 234 calories.
Comparatively, Costa’s hot chocolate has the lowest number of calories (208), and the second ‘best’ for sugar (23.2g)
The retailers frothing up a hot chocolate with the most amount of sugar is Caffè Nero (33.9g) and Pret a Manger who slip in the highest level of sugar when compared to all five brands (35.5g), which is nearly 9 teaspoons of sugar.
Nuyoo found that a mocha is also relatively high in calories and sugar. However, the one classified the “lightest”, Caffè Nero came out on top with their regular mocha containing 19g of sugar, compared to Greggs which contains 30g of sugar.
However, whilst Caffè Nero contains the least amount of sugar, Nero’s mocha has the highest number of calories (305 kcal).
The data was gathered by looking at the nutritional information offered by each retailer on their website to reveal the number of calories and grams of sugar found in four of the nation’s most popular hot drinks.
The researchers at Nuyoo selected semi-skimmed milk which most retailers selected use, as well as opting for a ‘regular’ cup size which is approximately 12 oz either side.