# Sugar in takeout coffee



## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

The amount of sugar found in these drinks is shocking. Check this out if you routinely buy coffee from Starbucks, McDonalds, Tim Hortons

For example, McCafe's Vanilla Chai Iced Frappe has 79 grams of sugar.



https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/marketplace-coffee-chain-drinks-1.6244149


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## MrMatt (Dec 21, 2011)

james4beach said:


> The amount of sugar found in these drinks is shocking. Check this out if you routinely buy coffee from Starbucks, McDonalds, Tim Hortons
> 
> For example, McCafe's Vanilla *Chai* Iced Frappe has 79 grams of sugar.
> 
> ...


That's literally not coffee.
When I order a coffee, I tell them how much sugar I want and that's all they put in.

If you order a pail of syrup... what did you think it was made out of?
We have a legal requirement to disclose calorie counts, and people still seem shocked that their sugary drink has.... sugar.

I guess these are the same people that need a 'weather warning" that it's November.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

I never put any sugar in coffee.

Starbucks coffee tastes the worst black but Americans think it's the best because it has the most sugar and costs more than a meal.

Get yourself a simple Bialetti, Aeropress or pour-over setup and a made-in-Canada grinder


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## MrsPartridge (May 15, 2016)

I'm not shocked. These drinks are just liquid candy. My coffee is at home Starbucks Pike black. 

They came for fat, then trans fat. They need to go after the sugar industry but their lobbyists are ahead of them.


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

Never order any fancy coffee, just plain old black will do. 

Give me the sugar on the side (packets) if honey isn't available and I'll decide how much to use.

Problem solved - at least for me.


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## doctrine (Sep 30, 2011)

Medium triple triple. 

Guess what? The price of a medium triple triple with 300 calories is the same as a medium black with 0 calories. One of them has 15% of my daily calories. 

CBC can pound sand if they want to take away my sugar. Don't make me stand outside Tim Hortons selling black market sugar to my fellow Canadians.


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## Tostig (Nov 18, 2020)

A true Tim Horton's double-double would be a small with only two cream.


FYI, daily intake of added sugar should be limited to 25g for men and 20g for women. That's impossible if you look at the food labels for everything you're going to eat. The only way you can come close to doing this is to avoid processed foods including milk (including yoghurt) and juice.


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## FairTrade (Apr 29, 2021)

Imaging having KIDS who still have to learn how to moderate! For some reason everyone seems to want to win our kids over with sugar. Family, friends, even strangers! IT NEVER ENDS! We even hear of 8 year olds bringing a can of pop to school with their lunchables and Halloween candy. We've been in an ongoing war with sugar in our house for 8 years now.


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## jargey3000 (Jan 25, 2011)

and what about all that caffeine?


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## doctrine (Sep 30, 2011)

Tostig said:


> A true Tim Horton's double-double would be a small with only two cream.
> 
> 
> FYI, daily intake of added sugar should be limited to 25g for men and 20g for women. That's impossible if you look at the food labels for everything you're going to eat. The only way you can come close to doing this is to avoid processed foods including milk (including yoghurt) and juice.


Fortunately we live in a society where I can buy a 5 pound bag of sugar candies at the store, grab a large quad quad at Tims, buy two 24 packs of beer, grab some high potency THC pills, plus two cartons of smokes, all on the same city block, and consume it all, and it is wholly legal. Maybe you shouldn't, but you certainly can!


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## cainvest (May 1, 2013)

james4beach said:


> The amount of sugar found in these drinks is shocking.


Not sure what is shocking about it ... i mean if you order a double-double at Tims you know what you're getting.


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## agent99 (Sep 11, 2013)

james4beach said:


> For example, McCafe's Vanilla Chai Iced Frappe has 79 grams of sugar.


I thought Chai was Tea. It is the Hindi word for* tea* or at least a beverage containing a mix of spices. No coffee.


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## Tostig (Nov 18, 2020)

cainvest said:


> Not sure what is shocking about it ... i mean if you order a double-double at Tims you know what you're getting.


You mean NOW you know what you're getting.


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## cainvest (May 1, 2013)

Tostig said:


> You mean NOW you know what you're getting.


Why wouldn't you have known before NOW?


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## Tostig (Nov 18, 2020)

doctrine said:


> Fortunately we live in a society where I can buy a 5 pound bag of sugar candies at the store, grab a large quad quad at Tims, buy two 24 packs of beer, grab some high potency THC pills, plus two cartons of smokes, all on the same city block, and consume it all, and it is wholly legal. Maybe you shouldn't, but you certainly can!


Reports like this are for those who care.


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## Mechanic (Oct 29, 2013)

I cut the sugar from my coffee and tea years ago. Just started slowly reducing, it's surprising how easily taste buds adapt. I did the same with milk and creamer prior to that. Now it's just plain black and simple. Tastes great too.


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

cainvest said:


> Not sure what is shocking about it ... i mean if you order a double-double at Tims you know what you're getting.


Do they though? I thought people might not understand how much sugar is in this


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## cainvest (May 1, 2013)

james4beach said:


> Do they though? I thought people might not understand how much sugar is in this


For anyone that cares nutritional information is easy to access, more so now than ever. Timmy's even displays calories for many items right on their big order screens.


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## twa2w (Mar 5, 2016)

james4beach said:


> The amount of sugar found in these drinks is shocking. Check this out if you routinely buy coffee from Starbucks, McDonalds, Tim Hortons
> 
> For example, McCafe's Vanilla Chai Iced Frappe has 79 grams of sugar.
> 
> ...


 For us old folks, that is just shy of 16 teaspoons.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

agent99 said:


> I thought Chai was Tea. It is the Hindi word for* tea* or at least a beverage containing a mix of spices. No coffee.


Same as Starbucks using Italian words to sound fancy because americans don't know what they mean anyways

Now when you ask for a macchiato in a real café they have to ask if you want a Starbucks macchiato or a macchiato macchiato

"You keep using that word"


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

m3s said:


> Same as Starbucks using Italian words to sound fancy because americans don't know what they mean anyways
> 
> Now when you ask for a macchiato in a real café they have to ask if you want a Starbucks macchiato or a macchiato macchiato
> 
> "You keep using that word"


aren’t the two pictures backwards? The normal macchiato is on the left not the rate as labeled.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

Yea.. I didn't make the picture

Macchiato is a single espresso with a small amount of steamed milk

Starbucks just took the word and "Americanized" it and others


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

m3s said:


> Yea.. I didn't make the picture
> 
> Macchiato is a single espresso with a small amount of steamed milk
> 
> Starbucks just took the word and "Americanized" it and others





m3s said:


> Yea.. I didn't make the picture
> 
> Macchiato is a single espresso with a small amount of steamed milk
> 
> Starbucks just took the word and "Americanized" it and others


it seems odd to post an incorrect picture When trying to provide the rght definition of a macchiato. Most people will look at the in correct oi response without reading your post and think either the macchiato isthe Starbucks version. Or don’t know what your are taliking about. Doesn’t really matter to me, just the pic is wrong while your are trying to explain the difference which is ironic.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

Yea I tried to describe it then searched for a quick picture

I suppose most americans wouldn't know which is which either. When they think of macchiato they probably think of the starbucks version


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## afulldeck (Mar 28, 2012)

No sugar, no starch, no white flour. Coffee with heavy cream and a steak please


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## HappilyRetired (Nov 14, 2021)

james4beach said:


> For example, McCafe's Vanilla Chai Iced Frappe has 79 grams of sugar.


That's not coffee...that's dessert.


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

I weaned myself off sugar is coffee/tea years ago and it is now unpalatable to me to drink sweetened tea/coffee. I occasionally get iced coffee with the liquid sugar added (as it is default) despite specifically asked for 'no sugar'. It is very disappointing when it happens as I tend not to bother going back and complaining....


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

andrewf said:


> I weaned myself off sugar is coffee/tea years ago and it is now unpalatable to me to drink sweetened tea/coffee. I occasionally get iced coffee with the liquid sugar added (as it is default) despite specifically asked for 'no sugar'. It is very disappointing when it happens as I tend not to bother going back and complaining....


Same

Most of the world has much less sugar (HFCS) addiction too


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

m3s said:


> Same
> 
> Most of the world has much less sugar (HFCS) addiction too


It's definitely addictive. I recently went through one of these cycles.

I normally eat and drink very sugar-free stuff, and never drink sugary drinks. But then for about a month, I guess I indulged in some baked goods & sweets.

Sure enough, I started craving this stuff again. Wanted cookies and other sweet things.

It's amazing how the body gets hooked. I toughed it out for a while, avoided all that sweet stuff, and now I have no cravings or interest in it at all. But it's pretty scary how quickly I can transform into someone who wants sugary things.


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

Good reminder of this thread. I know I have sugar addiction, I love sweets. I had cut down during the years, and with COVID it's been one of my guilty pleasures. This thread has reminded me to start weaning myself off the sugary dessert drinks and reduce my honey in my coffee. I find I am very all or nothing with it comes to sugar.


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## damian13ster (Apr 19, 2021)

I think it is very much a habit. Used to put 2 spoons of sugar in a coffee (and I drink a lot so got me way above daily recommended), and enjoyed ice cream cone daily. Then simply stopped adding sugar to coffee. Took about 3 weeks of grimacing, but after that suddenly tolerance to sugar went down dramatically. Now anything too sweet, and I simply dislike it. 
Taste buds adapt quickly.
There is also a specific age in kids (I think 2-5 but might be off) where taste buds develop, so watching kids diet at that stage will probably help them for rest of their lives. Something to pay attention to


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## HappilyRetired (Nov 14, 2021)

damian13ster said:


> I think it is very much a habit. Used to put 2 spoons of sugar in a coffee (and I drink a lot so got me way above daily recommended), and enjoyed ice cream cone daily. Then simply stopped adding sugar to coffee. Took about 3 weeks of grimacing, but after that suddenly tolerance to sugar went down dramatically. Now anything too sweet, and I simply dislike it.
> Taste buds adapt quickly.
> There is also a specific age in kids (I think 2-5 but might be off) where taste buds develop, so watching kids diet at that stage will probably help them for rest of their lives. Something to pay attention to


I used to put 2 tsps of sugar in my coffee when I was in college. My diabetic friend convinced me to drink coffee sugar free saying it tasted better. But rather than go cold turkey I slowly cut back over 2-3 weeks. It worked and for the last 40 years I've drinking coffee with just a splash of cream.


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

One also has to watch the amount of sugar in daily foods, since it creeps up on you.

These days I only buy very low sugar cereals. Corn flakes has very little for example, but still enough sweetness to keep it interesting.

I also eat the shredded wheat cereal, which is zero sugar. It's sometimes too bland, so I sprinkle cinnamon on it. The trick here is that cinnamon contains a very small amount of sugar, plus the flavour (to me) seems acceptable in lieu of sweetness. So this lets me eat cereal with closer to zero sugar, but it's still enjoyable.

Eating any takeout food, or restaurant food, gets you LOTS of sugar. They put it into everything because people love sugar. And it's covert, you won't even realize it's there, but it's why the sauce tastes good. There's tons of salt and sugar in takeout & restaurant food. For example even fast food pizzas (which I never thought of as sugary) are loaded with salt *and* sugar.


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## Money172375 (Jun 29, 2018)

james4beach said:


> One also has to watch the amount of sugar in daily foods, since it creeps up on you.
> 
> These days I only buy very low sugar cereals. Corn flakes has very little for example, but still enough sweetness to keep it interesting.
> 
> ...


Most things that We’ve trained our selves to enjoy have an abundance of either: salt, sugar, fat.

I remember my kids enjoying a side dish of vegetables at a restaurant and they asked why we couldn’t make them like that. Obviously they were swimming in butter and salt.


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## GL from QC (Nov 18, 2021)

I'm glad I'm not the only fan of plain black coffee on this thread! Also glad that I never got into habit of adding sugar or milk into it: for me, it's just a way to get some caffeine.

It also helps that I have the kind of taste buds that can't tell apart good or bad coffee, or cheap vs expensive wine haha. (I actually tried comparing $20 vs $75 champagne, side by side, and the only difference was that the cheap stuff was a tiny bit more acidic.) All those liquid candy bars you guys describe are horrifying from at least two angles: they're pretty bad for your overall health, and they're so not frugal... I know it's a huge cliché to tell people to skip their daily latte to save money, but seriously, that's a lot of cash...


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