Starbucks Raspberry & Coconut Brownie

The Starbucks Raspberry and Coconut Brownie costs £2.80 and carries 246 calories with 3.8g of fibre and 19g of sugar. A brownie with raspberry and coconut through it.

Its allergen list is the interesting part: soya and almonds only, with no wheat and no milk. Every other baked item on the Starbucks UK menu declares at least one of those two, so this is the closest thing in the case to a free from product, most likely built on ground almonds in place of flour and something other than dairy butter.

No dietary labels are published against it even so, and no gluten free marking, so anyone avoiding wheat for medical reasons should confirm in store rather than infer it from the allergen list. Absence from a list is not the same as a positive claim.

At 246 calories it is a good deal lighter than the triple chocolate brownie at 418, and 19g of sugar against 33g. Almond flour brings less carbohydrate than wheat flour, and raspberry brings sharpness in place of more chocolate.

8.3g of saturated fat is the coconut doing what coconut does, in the same way it does in the raspberry and coconut cake cube at 16g. This is the lighter of the two by a clear margin on every figure.

Almond flour behaves differently from wheat flour in a brownie and the result is denser rather than lighter. Ground almonds carry no gluten to build structure, so the crumb relies on egg and fat alone, which produces something closer to a baked truffle than to a cake. Anyone expecting a conventional brownie texture should expect that.

3.8g of fibre is high for a sweet item and comes from the almonds and the coconut together. Salt at 0.19g is the lowest of any baked snack here. Prices reach £3.75 on delivery.