Starbucks Cookies, Brownies, & Bars Menu USA

The Dubai Chocolate Bite is the Starbucks take on the pistachio-and-kataifi chocolate bar that took over social feeds. It is a tart, not a bar: a crisp chocolate-shortbread crust holds a crunchy filling of pistachio cream and shredded phyllo, with a chocolate layer on top. It is small, roughly two bites, and rich for its size.

The numbers surprise people. It carries 220 calories but only 6 g of sugar, the lowest sugar figure in this section, because most of the calories come from 14 g of fat in the pistachio and shortbread. The allergen line is Egg, Milk, Pistachios, Soy, Wheat, and it is the one item here that declares a tree nut. The reference store does not list a price, and stock is uneven, so check the app before driving over for one.

Chocolate Chip Cookie

The Chocolate Chip Cookie is thick, soft in the middle and crisp at the edge, with semisweet chips through it. It is vegetarian, it lists Egg, Milk, Soy, Wheat as allergens, and it costs $3.65 at the reference store. At 370 calories and 31 g of sugar it is a real dessert, not a side. Why choose the Chocolate Chip Cookie?

• Warmed on request: the chips melt and the center softens, which is the best way to eat it.
• Cheapest full-size treat: it undercuts the brownie and blondie by more than a dollar.
• Protein: 5 g, not much, but more than the blondie.
• Shareable: it breaks cleanly into halves for two people.

Best pairing: a Grande Pike Place with nothing in it. The cookie has enough sugar for both.

Double Chocolate Brownie

The Double Chocolate Brownie is a fudgy square with chunks of semisweet chocolate through it. It is the heaviest item in the section at 480 calories, 37 g of sugar and 28 g of fat. The reference store lists it at $4.75. Why choose the Double Chocolate Brownie?

• Most chocolate per bite: nothing else in the case comes close.
• Dense and filling: half a brownie is a reasonable portion for one person.
• Highest protein: 6 g, from the eggs and chocolate.
• Travels well: it does not crumble the way the cookie does in a bag.

Nutrition tip: split it. A half brownie is still more than a whole cake pop.

Berry Blondie

The Berry Blondie is a butter-based bar with white chocolate pieces and swirls of raspberry and blueberry through it. It sits between the cookie and the brownie on most numbers: 300 calories, 26 g of sugar, 14 g of fat, priced at $4.75. Why choose the Berry Blondie?

• Fruit flavor: the berry swirl cuts the sweetness of the white chocolate.
• Lower sugar than the cookie: 26 g against 31 g.
• No cocoa: the choice for people who do not want a chocolate treat.

Best pairing: a hot tea, black or green. The blondie is sweet enough that a latte tips it over.

Sweet Cream Cheese Icing

The Sweet Cream Cheese Icing is a small tub of vanilla-flavored dip made with real cream cheese, sold on its own at $1.45. It adds 140 calories and 11 g of sugar to anything it lands on, and the allergen line is just Milk. It exists for the cinnamon and bakery items, but people dip the cookie and the blondie in it too.

Three full-size treats, three different answers. The table lines them up on the figures that matter.

The Berry Blondie is the lightest of the three and the only one without cocoa. The Chocolate Chip Cookie is the cheapest and the best warmed. The Double Chocolate Brownie is the richest by a long way and costs the same as the blondie.

If calories decide it, blondie. If price decides it, cookie. If chocolate decides it, brownie, and plan on sharing.

Yes. Any barista will run a cookie, brownie or blondie through the same oven used for sandwiches if you ask, and in the app you can add a note in the special requests field. It takes about a minute. The cookie changes the most: the chips go liquid and the center turns soft. The brownie warms into something closer to a lava cake. The blondie softens without much change in flavor.

Skip warming the Dubai Chocolate Bite. The shortbread crust and the crisp filling are the point, and heat turns both soft.

Sugar is the number that separates these items. The Dubai Chocolate Bite has 6 g, the icing has 11 g, and the three full-size treats run from 26 to 37 g. Fat runs the other way on the pistachio tart, which is where its calories sit.

For a lower-sugar sweet, the Dubai Chocolate Bite is the pick in this section. For lower calories, look at the Chocolate Cake Pop at 150 in the cake pop section instead.

A sweet pastry and a sweet drink cancel each other out. Match each treat with something plain or bitter and the treat tastes better.

Every baked item here declares wheat, egg, milk and soy. The Dubai Chocolate Bite adds pistachios. The icing declares milk only. None of the items is gluten free, and none is vegan, since butter and egg are in every recipe.

The case is shared and the tongs are shared, so a nut allergy should treat the whole section with caution, not just the tart.

A few habits that make the sweet counter cheaper and better:

• Ask for the cookie warmed, and order it in the app with a note so it is ready when you arrive.
• Split the brownie. At 480 calories it is two servings.
• Check the app for the Dubai Chocolate Bite before you go; it is not stocked everywhere and has no listed price at the reference store.
• Use the icing on a warm cookie, not a cold one; it melts in and stops being a separate tub.
• Redeem Stars here. A cookie or blondie at 100 Stars is a better exchange than a syrup pump.