A leading Nottingham nutrition expert has called for a coffee chain to display the calorie content of its drinks more clearly.
Warmer weather means the high street is covered in advertisements for cold drinks – with Costa’s flvoured ‘coolers’ among the most common.
Some shops show how many calories are in each drink on in-store menu boards – but others including Costa do not.
And certain drinks such as the large Costa Toffee Creamy Cooler contain the same amount of sugar as 31 digestive biscuits.
They’ve now come in for criticism from Simon Langley-Evans, a professor of human nutrition at the University of Nottingham.
He said: “I think it’s really important that all outlets should give out information about their contents and products.
“People don’t buy products thinking they are good but I don’t think they realise how bad they actually are.”
In November several coffee chains including Costa and Starbucks came under fire for the high calorie content of specialist festive drinks, with some containing 600 calories.
And a breakdown of Costa’s summer cooler drinks shows they could prove heavy on the waistline.
Costa coolers – the five most calorific
- Costa Medium Mint Chocolate Chip Creamy Creamy Cooler (Whole milk) – 615 calories
- Costa Medium Raspberry and White Chocolate Creamy Cooler (Whole milk) – 535 calories
- Costa Medium Mango Creamy Cooler (Whole milk) – 453 calories
- Costa Medium Belgian Chocolate Creamy Cooler (Whole milk) – 447 calories
- Costa Medium Strawberries and Cream Creamy Cooler (Whole milk) – 405 calories
Source: Costa website nutrition table
Costa has nutritional information available on its website which can be downloaded, while other chains such as Starbucks state calories next to drinks on their menu.
Professor Langley-Evans, added: “Nobody who has visited the shop will then go onto the website to check calories, it should be displayed clearly when purchasing the product.
“Other healthier suggestions instead of these drinks would be water or fruit juice, also portion sizes should be smaller.”
Video: Nottingham people share their opinion’s on the calorific drink.
A handful of city coffee drinkers Notts TV News spoke to on Thursday said they were surprised by the content of some drinks.
Alex Holt, 25, a student nurse from Lenton, said: “I can’t believe how much sugar and calories there are in one drink.
“I regularly get one a week but I will have to find something else now.”
Not everyone likes to buy the fruity cold refreshments, instead just settling for a standard coffee.
Steven Bennett, 36, an IT Specialist from Basford, said: “I only ever buy coffee because I think the smoothies are a waste of money any way.”
A spokesman for Costa Coffee, said:”We don’t have the calories displayed on our menu boards as there is a lot of information already on there.
“We are launching new counter cards in the summer which have nutritional information available on them.
“A new range of ‘Superday Smoothies’ have recently been launched so customers have the choice to choose a healthier option as a cold refreshment during the hot weather.
“These drinks are blended with real fruit and can be counted as one of your five a day.
“Costa Coffee baristas have extensive knowledge of calorie information for each drink and a new nutritional fact sheet will be available in summer, highlighting nutritional information of summer drinks.”
