Revealed: Calories Contained In Festive Hot Drinks

With Christmas fast approaching – albeit in a different form to any we’ve ever known – and the official countdown in place, the festive spirit is slowly but surely gaining momentum.

While we may be restricted on where we meet friends, takeouts are still firmly on the menu. But how much calorific damage actually does one mocha chocka mulled spiced latte actually do? OnBuy.com decided to take a closer look at the nutritional value of our favourite hot drinks available at five major coffee chains in the UK: Starbucks, Costa, Caffè Nero, Pret a Manger and Greggs.

By comparing each festive hot treat, OnBuy analysed the number of calories and grams of sugar in each festive hot drink (provided for on their website) in order to see who slips in the most sugar and contain the most calories before additional sugar is added by the customer.

For the research, the drinks selected contained semi-skimmed milk and the cup size opted for was regular, which represents roughly 12 oz. It must be noted that while ‘regular’ was chosen, the measurement is approximate, and Starbucks measure their hot drinks in fl oz.

Belle About Town can reveal the festive drink containing the most grams of sugar is the Belgian Truffle Hot Chocolate at Caffè Nero, with a regular cup containing a whopping 56.9g of sugar; a whopping 14 teaspoons of sugar. This is followed by another Caffè Nero special; the Winter Spiced Hot Chocolate which contains 51.6g of sugar.

Pret a Manger, one of the nation’s favourite featured next, with their Orange Hot Chocolate coming in third place (50.5g), followed closely by their Mint Hot Chocolate (50.2g) – just under 13 teaspoons of sugar.

Unsurprisingly, out of the top 10 calorific and sugary festive hot drinks, seven are hot chocolate.

At the other end of the scale, the research found that Starbucks’s Toffee Nut Latte is the fifth ‘jolliest’ festive hot drink, containing 28.3g of sugar – a 28.6g difference from the sugar heavy Belgian Truffle Hot Chocolate offered by Caffè Nero.

Pret a Manger’s Crème Brûlée Latte takes fourth place with 26.6g of sugar, followed by their Gingerbread Latte (24.8g).

And finally, the retailers frothing up the festive hot drinks with the least sugar are Caffè Nero’s Salted Caramel Latte with 24.6g of sugar – equivalent to around 6 teaspoons of sugar.

And the award for the Christmas hot drink with as little sugar as possible during an overly indulgent period goes to Costa, with their Caramelised Orange Latte – just over 5 teaspoons of sugar (20.5g).

When considering the number of calories found in Christmas drinks last year, Pret a Manger’s Orange Hot chocolate was the most calorific, with 454 calories, followed by their Mint Hot Chocolate with 452 calories.

On the other hand, it seems opting for a Salted Caramel Latte is the best way to keep the pounds off, as Greggs offer one with 240 calories, while Caffè Nero takes the crown for the hot drink with the lowest number of calories (153).