I admit I was pretty excited to hear that Starbucks was going to start offering coconut milk at their stores. Apparently the idea is to offer a non dairy option to it’s customers. I personally don’t have any issues with dairy but I really do love coconut milk. It’s rich and creamy, low in sugar and contains healthy fats.
The problem is that Starbucks coconut milk isn’t really coconut milk. Any legitimate coconut milk contains the following ingredients: Coconut milk and water. That’s it. What does the coconut milk in Starbucks contain? Here’s the list: Water, coconut cream, cane sugar, tricalcium phosphate, coconut water concentrate, natural flavors, sea salt, carrageenan, gellan gum, corn dextrin. xanthan gum, guar gum, vitamin A palmitate and vitamin D2.
So what’s the problem with these ingredients? Plenty. First of all, why did they have to add sugar to their coconut milk? Ugh! No extra sugar with my drinks please. My next issue is the fact that their coconut milk contains carrageenan. Carrageenan is known to cause digestive problems as well as inflammation in the body. Um, no thanks.
Starbucks has been using the words “rich and creamy” to promote their product. I find that very interesting since the fat content in their coconut milk is very low, much lower than real coconut milk. Why is a low fat, high sugar drink a problem? Whenever you drink a low fat, high sugar beverage it tends to increase sugar cravings later on. You will tend to stay more satisfied if you consume a higher fat, lower sugar drink.
I really had high hopes that Starbucks would hit the mark with this one. It seems like they simply added yet another sugary, low quality product to their lineup.