Starbucks used to be a daily addiction of mine, they knew my keto Starbucks order so well, when they saw me walk in, the baristas got to it: grande dark roast with a shot of espresso, with two pumps of sugar free vanilla syrup and a splash of heavy cream. Pre-covid, I would get this, grab single-serve packets of Vital Proteins Collagen powder and Bulletproof Brain Octane Oil that I always have in my glovebox, and drink it on the way to the gym — it was my morning ritual. My local Starbucks closed down during the lockdown, so I had to get creative and started to recreate my keto friendly Starbucks drink at home – which ultimately has saved me a ton of money too.
However, now that Starbucks is back open and back in business, I often get asked what Starbucks keto drinks are best along with what food items are keto at Starbucks, so I’m breaking down the best bets below.
Keto Drinks at Starbucks
As I mentioned above, I kept it pretty simple with a dark roast, sugar free vanilla syrup and heavy cream for my go-to keto Starbucks order, but here are some other ways to enjoy low carb drinks at Starbucks:
- Make sure you specify – especially for iced drinks – that you want no sugar syrup aka Classic syrup. This is a standard base in most of their drinks.
- For milk, keep it light – I usually go with a splash of heavy whipping cream or ask for unsweetened almond milk.
- Don’t over do it with the sugar-free sweetener. Keep it to one or two pumps (rule of thumb – each pump is about 1 gram of carbs)
- Of course, it probably goes without saying that you should skip the whipped cream to keep the carb count down!
Ok, so here are my go-to Keto Starbucks Drinks:
- Unsweetened Coffee or Iced Coffee: similar to my go to order, iced or hot, ask for a coffee without classic syrup and 1 – 2 pumps of your preferred sugar-free syrup
- Keto Pink Drink: this beautifully pink drink is an Instagram sensation, and is delicious and simple to make low carb! Just ask for a Grande Passion Tango tea – and again…no classic syrup, instead, order it with 2 pumps of sugar-free vanilla and heavy cream.
- Keto Chai Latte:?my favorite hot winter drink is crazy high in carbs straight of the menu – as in 50g or more! That’s more than a days worth of carbs for the typical keto dieter! But here’s how to enjoy all the spicy goodness for under 5g of net carbs: ask for a grande chai tea — this is important…you don’t want their chai tea syrup, you want it with two chai tea bags instead. You can go with only one tea bag, I ask for two because I like it extra strong! Then ask for two pumps of sugar-free cinnamon dolce syrup and heavy cream. Delicious!
Keto Foods at Starbucks
There are some keto food options at Starbucks, however the items you think would be low carb, always aren’t so looking at the labels is key. For example, the Sous Vide Egg Bits sound like they’d be keto-friendly, right? No, they have around 10g of carbs in them, so I usually go with the Protein Box with hard boiled eggs and cheese for breakfast and their Grilled Chicken salad for lunch.
Share your favorite keto Starbucks foods and drinks in the comments below!