Christmas is fast approaching and the coffee chains all have festive drinks to tempt us. Personally, I don’t have a problem resisting them, as I don’t see why the date should affect my choice of coffee! My daughter, however, loves them and usually tries a fair few of them in the run-up to Christmas. We don’t expect them to be healthy but an article on just how much sugar is in them did shock me.
Dental provider My dentist analysed the menus of top chains that have released their menus for 2019 to see how much sugar was in their Christmas specials and revealed the top five drinks that contain the most sugar – and it’s bad news for Pret a Manger.
Pret’s Mint Hot Chocolate contains 50.2g of sugar or 12 cubes in its standard 335g size cup with standard ingredients of organic chocolate powder, organic milk, mint syrup and whipped cream – that’s equivalent to the sugar in 20 McVities original digestive biscuits!
Now most of us would not dream of having 12 sugars in our coffee or eating 20 biscuits in one sitting. Yet we order these drinks.
Costa Coffee Hazelnut Praline Hot Chocolate has 38.6g or 9.5 cubes of sugar.
Starbucks Toasted Marshmallow Hot Chocolate has 36.7g or 9 cubes of sugar
Now if these drinks don’t sell the chains will stop offering them. So vote with your order and avoid!
Do though enjoy Christmas!
Sharon Jardine
