Shocking amount of sugar found in many hot flavoured drinks 
 
 Up to 25 teaspoons of sugar per serving: equivalent to ≈ 3 cans of Coca Cola 
 
 
 
 Embargoed until 00.01 on 17/02/2016 
 
 
 
 9 8% of hot flavoured drinks would receive a ‘red’ (high) label for excessive levels of sugars per serving – with 35% containing the same amount or more sugar than a can of Coca Cola 
 
 8% of hot flavoured drinks would receive a ‘red’ (high) label for excessive levels of sugars per serving – with 35% containing the same amount or more sugar than a can of Coca Cola Starbuck’s Hot Mulled Fruit - Grape with Chai, Orange and Cinnamon Venti is the worst offender, containing a whopping 25 teaspoons of sugar - more than THREE times the maximum ADULT daily intake of free sugars (7tsp/d) 
 
 of sugar - more than times the maximum ADULT daily intake of free sugars (7tsp/d) With the imminent release of the government’s Childhood Obesity Strategy – Action on Sugar is calling for stricter product reformulation of sugar and fat with mandated targets, a ban on promotions and marketing of unhealthy products and a 20% tax on sugar-sweetened drinks 
 
 
 
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 For media coverage, click here 
 
 With an estimated 1.7 billion cups of coffee sold each year in the UK from over 18,000 outlets and one in five of the population (including teenagers) visiting a coffee shop daily[1], campaign group Action on Sugar is today warning of the dangerously high sugar content of certain hot beverages found in many high street coffee shop chains. [5] 
 
 
 
 The worst offender is the Starbuck’s Hot Mulled Fruit - Grape with Chai, Orange and Cinnamon Venti (extra-large) – a mix of chai and fruit concentrate, topped with a cinnamon stick and a slice of orange – which contains 25 teaspoons of sugar (that’s the equivalent of sugar in 5 muffins)[6], followed by Costa Coffee’s Chai Latte (large) with a massive 20 teaspoons of sugar. When it comes to hot drinks that are perceived to be ‘healthy’, a Starbuck’s Chai Tea Latte Venti (extra-large) contains 13 teaspoons of sugar per serving alongside Eat’s Chai Latte Big and Matcha Latte Big at 11 teaspoons. [7] 
 
 
 
 Professor Graham MacGregor, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at Queen Mary University of London, Chair of Action on Sugar says, “This is yet again another example of scandalous amount of sugar added to our food and drink.
– Have some hot beverage with your sugar. That's the roundabout finding of a UK health advocacy organization that discovered hot flavored drinks served by chains like Starbucks, McDonald's, and Dunkin' Donuts can contain a "shocking" amount of sugar—sometimes up to 25 teaspoons per serving, or more than three times the recommended daily amount for adults, per CNNMoney. The Action on Sugar report analyzed 131 hot flavored drinks from UK chains—CNN points out nutritional info on company websites would make results similar in the US—and found that 98% of the tested beverages would get slapped with a "red" label for excessive amounts of sugar, with 35% of them boasting at least the same amount of sugar as a can of Coke (9 teaspoons). "These hot flavored drinks should be an occasional treat, not an everyday drink," an Action for Sugar researcher warns. Starbucks claimed the worst of the bunch with its hot mulled fruit grape drink with orange, chai, and cinnamon—the 25-teaspoon suspect mentioned earlier. A Starbucks rep says it is committed to cutting down by a quarter the amount of added sugar in its "indulgent" beverages by 2020 and notes that it "also [offers] a wide variety of lighter options, sugar-free syrups, and sugar-free natural sweetener" and makes all of its nutritional data public. That doesn't sweeten the results for the Action on Sugar chairman, who says it's "yet again another example of scandalous amounts of sugar added to our food and drink," per CNBC. (No one can figure out what Starbucks' newest drink even is.)