Novel McDonald’s a chain of drinks stores called CosMc’s has popular drinks on its menu that are similar to those that customers at other coffee chains like Starbucks and Dunkin’ love — but how do they compare to your diet?
It’s no secret that some of these tasty, favorite drinks are sneakily packed with more sugar than you might think, so we decided to compare the nutritional information of similar drinks from three chains to see how they stack up in terms of sugar and calorie content.
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While drink sizes vary slightly by brand, all of Starbucks’ medium-sized coffee cups (or “grande” as they are called) hold 16 ounces, so we’ll operate that size in the comparisons below.
This The American Heart Association recommends Limiting your intake of added sugar to 9 teaspoons (or 36 grams) per day for men and 6 teaspoons (25 grams) for women.
“Many people consume more sugar than they realize. It’s critical to be aware of how much sugar we consume because our bodies don’t need sugar to function properly,” the association’s website states. “Added sugars provide no nutrients but lots of added calories, which can lead to extra pounds and even obesity. This can have a negative impact on heart health.”
Note: CosMc confirmed to CBS News that their standard coffee recipes operate whole milk. To make the comparisons as close as possible, we used whole milk recipes to break down Dunkin’s nutritional values, while Starbucks relies on 2% milk because it does not offer a whole milk option in its nutritional guide for all beverages. The sugar amounts listed below are total sugars. Any exceptions are noted below.
Cappuccino medium
CosMc: 160 calories11g sugar
Starbucks: 120 calories10g sugar
Dunkin’: 120 calories0g sugar (no added sugar) or 220 calories, 35g sugar (with added sugar)
Blended Iced Coffee
Frigid Brew Frappe by CosMc: 430 calories48g sugar
Starbucks Coffee Frappuccino: 240 calories50 g sugar (with whole milk)
Dunkin’ Iced coffee: 410 calories, 84 g sugar
Scorching chai latte
CosMc: 370 calories60g sugar
Starbucks: 240 calories42g sugar
Dunkin’: 290 calories40g sugar
Scorching chocolate
CosMc: 380 calories35g sugar
Starbucks: 290 calories41g sugar
Dunkin’: 330 calories46 g sugar (type of milk not specified)
Mocha latte
CosMc’s mocha: 380 calories34g sugar
Starbucks “Coffee Mocha”: 260 calories, 34g sugar
Dunkin’ “Mocha Swirl Scorching Latte”: 330 calories47g sugar
Other CosMc Drink Options
CosMc’s also offers signature drinks for the chain, including “Signature Galactic Boosts” and fruit-flavored iced teas and lemonades.
Neither size of the former provides customers with a drink that contains less than the AHA’s recommended daily allowance of sugar for women, with the lowest total sugar being 27 grams in a petite “Blueberry Ginger Boost” drink, according to their nutritional guide.
However, this drink, as well as three other options, do fit within the recommended daily allowance of sugar for men, including the medium and enormous Blueberry Ginger Boost weighing in at 31 and 35 grams, respectively, and the petite “Sour Cherry Energy Burst” weighing in at 30 grams.
The two highest calorie and sweetest options are a enormous Island Pick-Me-Up Punch containing 500 calories and 103 grams of sugar, and a enormous Berry Hibiscus Sour-ade containing 500 calories and 108 grams of sugar.
There are also several drinks from other categories that have a caloric value exceeding 500 calories, including:
- Huge Frigid Brew Frappe: 550 and 62 grams of sugar
- Huge Churro Frappe: 610 calories and 76 grams of sugar
- All medium and enormous cocktails, and the most pricey one is a enormous strawberry cocktail, which contains 850 calories and 107 grams of sugar
Options with the lowest sugar and calories
There are a few options on the menu if you want to control your sugar and calorie intake. In addition to water and diet drinks, every size of their unsweetened tea or coffee (including iced coffee or frigid brew, without milk or sugar) has 0 grams of sugar and 0 to 25 calories.
