Review: Starbucks launches more nutritious breakfast foods
September 2nd, 2008, 5:09 pm · 8 Comments · posted by Nancy Luna, Staff Writer
Starting Wednesday, Starbucks is injecting a much-needed shot in the arm to its breakfast lineup.
The struggling Seattle cafe giant will launch a new line of six breakfast options Wednesday, including: whole grain oatmeal; a power protein plate with a hard-boiled egg; a chewy fruit and nut bar (shown right), a whole-grain breakfast pastry, an apple bran muffin and a multi-grain roll topped with fruit or butter spreads.
Prices vary from $1.60 to $4.95, depending on the item.
The new, more nutritious line up of grab-and-go morning grub debuts Wednesday in all domestic stores, including cafes in Orange and Los Angeles counties. The hot breakfast sandwiches, which nearly got pulled because they were “too smelly,” will remain on the breakfast menu, the company said.
I sampled a few items Tuesday afternoon. Here’s the lowdown:
Hot oatmeal: Served piping hot with three toppings — nut medley, brown sugar and dried fruit. The toppings come in separate pouches, so you can control how much you want to pour on the oatmeal. On its own, oatmeal is generally bland so I liked having the dried fruit and brown sugar options. Tip: You can ask for more toppings as long as you stick to three total pouches. Any additional pouches cost 35 cents each. Price: $2.45. Nutritional value: Contains 140 to 390 calories and 4 to 7 grams of fiber, depending on which toppings you chose. (Oatmeal now shown in top photo, but click on right image to enlarge)
Power protein plate: Comes with grapes, apple slices, two small cheese slices, a mini-whole wheat bagel, and a small squeezable pouch of peanut butter. I only tried the bagel with the cheeses because I don’t like peanut butter. I can see this being a great grab-and-go item when you’re looking to fill up in between meals. Price: $4.95. Nutritional value: Contains 330 calories with 16 grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber.
Baked Berry Stella:This cute little star-shaped pastry was a bit too chewy for me. But, it did have a nice sweet kick to it. It is made with 100 percent whole grains and baked with berries. Price: $1.75. Nutritional value: 280 calories, 9 fat grams, 6 grams of protein and more than 200 mg of Omega-3s.
Apple Bran Muffin: Let’s get to the point here: I detest all bran foods. How can anything so good for you, taste so awful? That being said, Starbucks has done a good job of disguising the bran taste in this Apple Bran Muffin, which contains dried cherries and baked apple. It reminded me of a Zen Blueberry Bran muffin Diedrich Coffee back in the gool old days. Price: $1.75. Nutritional value: 7 grams of fiber, 7 grams of protein, Omega-3s and 330 calories
Multi-grain roll with spreads: This tiny, unassuming piece of bread was the best of the bunch. The loaf is packed with plenty of grains. A touch of honey gives it a sweet taste. And, the spreads — a pouch of squeezable almond butter and strawberry preserves — were too die for.
Chewy Fruit & Nut Bar: This bar was created to meet a demand for more protein-packed nutrition bars, Starbucks said. The bar contains real fruit, oats, notes and clover honey. Anyone searching for a chewy, and fruity power bar will like this product. I liked it, but it contains too much fat grams (10) for me. Price: $1.75. Nutritional value: 250 calories, 4 grams of fiber and 5 grams of protein, 10 grams of fat.
Bonus beverage: Starbucks is also debuting a Vanilla Latte + Protein drink. The drink, no price given, is a latte with a shot of fiber and whey powder mixed into the milk. The drink tasted like a normal latte, except the foam was a bit more light, and airy.
(click on images to enlarge & get more details)
Related stories:
- Starbucks takes the stink out of hot breakfast sandwiches
- Fast food joints increase breakfast offerings
- Ten O.C. Starbucks closing
- Laguna Beach Starbucks among 50 to close in July
- Coffeehouses that can replace a closing Starbucks
- Panera Bread debuts breakfast sandwiches
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:36 pm
I think Starbucks is still missing the boat when it comes to what customers want with pastries. I personally want more European style pastries like what they have at Au Bon Pain back east or the European style pastries Diedrichs use to get from Il Fornaio. I just get such a special feeling walking into a Au Bon Pain, smelling the fresh baked pastries and thinking to myself - this is the way I want to start my morning. When I walk into a Starbucks in the morning I think to myself - its time to find a McDonalds. Oh I have almost threw up a few times when going into a Starbucks while they were heating up breakfast sandwiches, it smelled always like burnt cheese in my local Starbucks.
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Oh I forgot to say how I define European pastries compared with American. European style pastries tend to be flakier and lighter as opposed to the denser American pastries you get at Starbucks.
September 2nd, 2008 at 10:27 pm
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September 2nd, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Ms. Luna knows that I can be tough on Starbucks, but I have to say the protein laced latte has me interested. According to Starbucks.com it has 17 grams of protein, which isn’t bad. I may stop in on my way to work and try one, plus the berry Stella thing.
The oatmeal option is also, well, an option. Especially with brown sugar.
The rest of the breakfast offerings are kind of meh for me. But whey protein in a latte? Count me in!
September 5th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
You need fat for satiety. Don’t listen to the AHA and others, who want you to eat 300 gms of carb a day ( a food pyramid for livestock!)– no wonder the country is so fat.
September 7th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
So I went to Starbucks in Orange at Tustin and Meats today and ordered the protein vanilla latte, the berry Stella thing, and bought the Sunday Register.
There were four employees behind the counter, and they began a heated discussion of how exactly they were supposed to add the protein powder to the latte. No one seemed to know what to do. Finally the kid working the espresso machine said he would handle it, and I kind of wished they had talked it over more. That thing was disgusting! Clumpy protein powder stuck to the side of the cup, the taste was sickeningly sweet almost to the point of being sour, and I couldn’t even taste the espresso in it. I should have stopped after two sips, but since it was pricy at about four bucks I drank the whole thing. It left me feeling ill and woozy for about two hours.
Don’t add the protein powder to anything at Starbucks! Avoid it! Trust me!
On the plus side, the berry Stella granola thing was pretty good.
Why does Starbucks do this to me Ms. Luna?! I want to like them again, I really do. But they make it so hard on me.
September 8th, 2008 at 7:03 am
What a bummer , Troy. When I tasted the vanilla/protein latte — i honestly couldn’t tell the difference between it, and a regular latte. I had to ask the operations manager, “What should I be tasting?” She said the powder is mixed with the steamed milk.
That should have made the froth a bit more airy and light. But, I didn’t drink the whole thing, so there could have been dusty whey residue in the cup, and I would NOT have noticed.
October 18th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Healthy eating is even more necessary when we are trying to regain health due to illness or we are trying to maintain our health due to age.
Good analysis of these neutritional value food stuffs.