Starbucks Iced Caramelised Banana Latte

The Starbucks Iced Caramelised Banana Latte costs £4.90 for a Tall and carries 216 calories in a Grande with 29.2g of sugar. Caramelised banana sauce, Blonde espresso and cold milk go over ice, and a banana flavour milk cold foam finishes it.

This is the milkier of the two iced banana drinks and it tastes considerably sweeter than the shaken version, because milk carries the sauce in suspension rather than letting it sit under a splash of oat drink. The cold foam on top adds a second layer of the same flavour, so the opening mouthfuls are the sweetest part. Blonde espresso keeps some coffee character in the middle, though it works harder here than it does in the shaken espresso.

29.2g of sugar in a Grande out of 30.1g of carbohydrate means essentially all the carbohydrate is sugar, and that is roughly a third of the 90g adult reference intake. Calories are 151 in a Tall, 216 in a Grande and 249 in a Venti. Caffeine holds at 85.5mg through Tall and Grande and rises to 128.2mg in a Venti, following the iced latte pattern rather than the shaken espresso one.

It is worth understanding why this drink is so much sweeter than the shaken version built on the same sauce. Milk holds the sauce in suspension all the way through the cup, where a splash of oat drink over a shaken espresso leaves most of the sweetness at the bottom until you stir. Add a second banana layer in the cold foam and the sugar reaches 29.2g against 17.7g. Same flavour, a very different drink.

Two changes cut it down meaningfully: half the sauce takes roughly a third off the sugar, and dropping the cold foam removes another layer of it along with some calories. Like the rest of the banana range it is seasonal and disappears when the sauce runs out. The Iced Caffè Latte is the plain version at 128 calories, and the Iced Caramelised Banana Oat Shaken Espresso is the lighter, less milky way to get the same flavour.