Light Frappuccino
I used to be a serious Starbucks fanatic. Sure, sure, they ran the mom n’ pops out of business and they burn their beans a little, but when there’s one every 30 feet, you can’t help but become a patron. For a while, during what I’ve come to call Age of Excess, I used to get a Venti whole milk triple hazelnut latte every morning on my way to work. I racked up 88,400 calories and 4,680 grams of fat, not to mention close to $1200 doing that 5 days a week for a year. That was little over 25 pounds of junk in my trunk just from a beverage and I’m not even counting the hazelnut syrup. Scary, no?
Well, when I put a cease and desist on gluttony in my life and moved on to greener, fat-free Coffeemate pastures, I rarely set foot inside a Starbucks. I couldn’t deal with the temptation. I tried nonfat hot lattes and hated them. I do like nonfat iced lattes, but I just couldn’t see spending that kind of cash on something I was going to suck down in 30 seconds.
Well, now Starbucks has finally hopped on the weight-loss bandwagon and created Light Frappuccinos! I stopped by there this afternoon to try them out so I could review them. They come several flavors, but since I didn’t know the Points at the time, I opted for a tall (the smallest size) in plain Original Coffee flavor with no-whip (2 points!). Some of the other flavors are 3 and 4 points, so be careful.
According to the barista I spoke with, the original Frappuccino mix was already a lowfat concoction, but they’ve reduced it a bit more and switched the sweetener to Splenda. Hooray! She advised me to let people know that even though they’re technically not supposed to serve the light variety with whipped cream, some shops might not be aware, so it’s best to ask for no-whip if you want it to be low-calorie and low-fat. Skipping the flavored syrups and add-ons should save you, too, but that takes all the fun out of it.
The Original Coffee Frappuccino is 4 Points, 190 calories, 2.5 grams of fat, 32 grams of sugar, 38 grams of carbs and 0 grams of fiber, so you’re saving about half by getting the light and honestly, I couldn’t tell the difference at all. The Light Coffee Frappuccino is 110 calories, 1 gram of fat, 2 grams of fiber, 22 grams of carbs and 15 grams of sugar for only 2 Points. (This is for the tall size. You can calculate other sizes here.) Not bad!
I give the Starbucks Light Frappuccino 4 donuts. I think it’s a great substitute for the original frappuccino and a good low-point, low-fat treat for summertime, but I definitely won’t be making a 25 pound habit of it.