Starbucks and The Sugar Drink Replacement

holly55555
holly55555 Posts: 306 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I don't like regular coffee. I'm not really a person who needs caffeine on a regular basis, but I do like to drink "fake" coffee drinks from Starbucks. This includes pumpkin spice lattes, vanilla lattes, peppermint mochas, etc.

I became a little obsessed with these sugar drinks and started buying the VIA packets to make them at home. I started drinking them almost daily!

I get them all with nonfat milk and no whip, but it still is over 100+ extra calories for no nutritional value.

I just cut them out of my diet and I miss them terribly.

So, seasoned coffee vets, what is a lower sugar/lower cal coffee drink that I may like to replace these?

Replies

  • cityruss
    cityruss Posts: 2,493 Member
    I'm no coffee addict, but here goes.

    I don't think you're going to get much lower than a soya/nonfat milk with sugar free syrup if you're going to one of the coffee chains. I believe they call them a "skinny".

    Personally if you like them that much I'd just find a way of fitting it in to your daily goals.
  • TeardropBeast
    TeardropBeast Posts: 2 Member
    As someone who loves themselves some coffee:

    Brew your own coffee and use Coffeemate creamer (35cal for 1tbsp, with similar flavors to Starbucks).
  • morganpetrone
    morganpetrone Posts: 1
    You should try tea! I am a barista at starbucks currently and enjoy drinking our brand new teavana teas. All of them are low calorie and we have a variety of caffeinated and uncaffinated teas. If your feeling in need of some creme flavor with caffeine try a tea latte they are delicious!
  • mom3over40
    mom3over40 Posts: 253 Member
    edited January 2015
    What kind of VIA packets do you use? I use Columbia with Splenda (which IMO is the only sweetener compatible with the taste of coffee) and 1% milk and ends with 100 calories. If you use fat free milk, shouldn't it has less calories? Besides, milk has calcium and proteins, may not be much, but definitely not empty calories :)

    And yes, I ditch some other food and change out my carbs choices to keep my coffee :)
  • Lorkio
    Lorkio Posts: 13 Member
    Coffee brewed at home with flavored (low fat/sugar free) creamer- a lot of creamers come in flavors like peppermint mocha or vanilla/hazelnut etc. However, I've weaned off this to just regular coffee with milk. Another favorite of mine is to brew tea (usually peppermint flavor, or some fruit variety) in large mason jars and chill it, then I have a cold flavored drink to enjoy, too.
  • azulvioleta6
    azulvioleta6 Posts: 4,195 Member
    I slowly transitioned from coffee drinks that were mostly milk and sugar to making my own at home.

    Now my drinks are mostly coffee--strong, French pressed, GOOD coffee. I mostly use Stumptown beans, which are very flavorful. I allow one cup of soy or dairy milk a day to distribute among all of my coffee drinks--when that is gone, I am done. For a while I used syrups with Splenda...now I just use a tiny bit of Splenda (no flavor) or stevia.

    You can shift your tastes over time.

    Another thing to try if you MUST have flavor is baking extracts--a dash of vanilla, mint extract, etc. Cardamom pods and cinnamon sticks can add flavor too. In Spain, people stir their coffee with a cinnamon stick to make it seem sweeter--it's worth a try!
  • kevinmacpa
    kevinmacpa Posts: 84 Member
    holly55555 wrote: »
    I don't like regular coffee. I'm not really a person who needs caffeine on a regular basis, but I do like to drink "fake" coffee drinks from Starbucks. This includes pumpkin spice lattes, vanilla lattes, peppermint mochas, etc.

    I became a little obsessed with these sugar drinks and started buying the VIA packets to make them at home. I started drinking them almost daily!

    I get them all with nonfat milk and no whip, but it still is over 100+ extra calories for no nutritional value.

    I just cut them out of my diet and I miss them terribly.

    So, seasoned coffee vets, what is a lower sugar/lower cal coffee drink that I may like to replace these?

    As you said it yourself, you don't need caffeine, but you are obsessed with sugar. So you probably have a sugar addiction. Why is it so hard to quit smoking? Because it is an addiction, and when you try to stop cold turkey, you go through withdraws. Same with alcohol addiction, drug addiction, etc.

    When you cut out sugary drinks all of a sudden, you miss them terribly, this is your withdraw symptom. If you really want to quit drinking so many sugary drinks, you do what all addicts do: reduce the frequency of how often you drink sweet drinks, and reduce the potency of the sweet drinks, gradually.

    Good luck! Hope you can control your craving and not let your craving control you.

  • elphie754
    elphie754 Posts: 7,574 Member
    TeardropBeast wrote: »
    As someone who loves themselves some coffee:

    Brew your own coffee and use Coffeemate creamer (35cal for 1tbsp, with similar flavors to Starbucks).

    This!!!

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