A large mocha from one of the High Street’s most popular chains has more calories than a McDonald’s double cheeseburger.
We took a look at the amount of calories (kcal) in five drinks from Britain’s favourite coffee chains.
Takeaway coffees we looked at can stretch from having almost 0 kcal - like an Americano from Pret, to the 469 packed into a large ‘massimo’ mocha from Costa. Compare that to a McDonald’s double cheeseburger, which has 445 kcal.
We took the nutritional information for takeaway drinks from Starbucks’, Nero’s, Costa’s, Greggs’ and Pret’s websites. Each is for a takeaway coffee. We examined the calorific content of a black Americano, a cappuccino, a flat white, a mocha and a latte at each of the chains.
For the coffees which use milk, we looked at semi-skimmed recipes, except for Costa as it uses whole milk as standard.
The lowest Calorie coffee we found was in Pret, which claims its black Americano has just 1 kcal. Pret only serves one standard size of coffee, while the others offer a choice.
Costa - as it uses whole milk - often came in with the fattiest drinks. However, they - like their rivals - do offer options like skimmed, soya and coconut milk, which reduces the Calories.
Mochas, across the board, weighed in with the most Calories. Hardly surprising for a drink which combines lots of milk and chocolate.
If you like cappuccinos, the lowest Calorie option from the chains was Nero’s small, which is served with semi-skimmed milk as standard.
For flat whites, Nero has the healthiest, with just 71 Calories in a regular cup.