Pumpkin Spice drink has more sugar than three jam doughnuts - Starbucks, Costa & more analysed

By Jimmy Johnson
Published 22nd Sep 2022, 15:16 BST
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The drink contained more than 50 grams of sugar per serving.

One of the United Kingdom’s most popular seasonal drinks contains more sugar than what is in three jam doughnuts, a study has found.

In a study conducted by Exante, Starbucks’ s Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino drink was found to contain more sugar than three jam doughnuts (for the purpose of the study, Exante only looked at regular and large-sized drinks).

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Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino contains 53.6 grams of sugar - which is equivalent to just over three and a half jam doughnuts from Greggs.

It’s also considerably more than what is in a 330ml can of Coca-Cola - which only contains 35 grams of sugar.

Furthermore, it also contains more calories than a cheeseburger from McDonald’s.

A McDonald’s cheeseburger has 298kcal, while a Pumpkin Spice Frappucino contains 379kcal.

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It’s not the only sugar-filled caffeinated beverage on the market - Costa’s Maple Hazel Hot Chocolate and Light Dairy Swirl contains 48.9 grams of sugar and 393kcal.

A drink from Costa was found to contain almost 400 calories per serving.A drink from Costa was found to contain almost 400 calories per serving.
A drink from Costa was found to contain almost 400 calories per serving.

One of the most popular seasonal drinks, the Pumpkin Spice Latte, also contains a lot of sugar. Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte has 39.3 grams of sugar in it, Greggs’ version has 28 grams, while Pret-A-Manger’s contains 23.4 grams.

Starbucks also do an iced version of their Pumpkin Spice Latte, which has 38.9 grams of sugar.

The standard daily intake of sugar for an adult is 90 grams - meaning that drinking two of Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Frappuccinos would push you well past this recommended limit.

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Exante recently conducted another study in which they found that almost half of people in Britain (41%) are only ‘somewhat aware’ of their daily sugar intake.