Starbucks Frappuccino Blended Beverage Menu USA

Every Frappuccino is milk, ice and a syrup base blended thick and topped with whipped cream. The one real fork in the menu is the coffee: the Coffee Frappuccino section uses Frappuccino Roast, a coffee concentrate, and the Crème Frappuccino section leaves it out. Calories and prices overlap almost exactly across the two; caffeine is what separates them, 90 mg in a Grande caramel against 0 in a vanilla bean crème.

The category holds 16 builds, 230 to 480 calories in a Grande, from $6.05 at Starbucks (Northgate Way & I-5), Seattle.

• Frappuccino Roast: an instant-style coffee concentrate mixed with water, used instead of espresso so the drink blends smooth. Coffee builds only.
• Milk: whole milk by default, which is why the fat runs higher than a latte.
• Base syrup: a sweetened syrup that keeps the blend from separating; it is in every build and is why even the plain coffee version has 45 g of sugar.
• Flavor: caramel or mocha sauce, vanilla bean powder, strawberry puree, matcha, or a seasonal syrup.
• Ice, blended to a slush.
• Whipped cream on everything except the plain coffee Frappuccino, plus a drizzle or crumble on the richer builds.

Frappuccinos come in Tall, Grande and Venti only. The reference store steps the price up by about fifty cents per size, and the seasonal and topped builds carry a premium over the classics.

A Frappuccino is the sweetest thing on the drinks board. The lightest, the Orange Cream Frappuccino Blended Beverage, is 39 g of sugar in a Grande; the heaviest, the Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino Blended Beverage, is 65 g. A Venti of any topped build passes 500 calories. None of that is a reason not to order one; it is a reason to order it as a dessert rather than as a coffee.

The sugar comes from three places at once: the base syrup, the flavor sauce or syrup, and the whipped cream. Removing any one of them helps, and the whipped cream is the easiest to give up. The six heaviest builds below show where the toppings push the numbers.

There is no light Frappuccino on the current board, but the changes that used to make one still work at the counter.

• No whip: the single biggest saving on every build but the plain coffee, around 80 to 120 calories.
• Nonfat or almond milk in place of whole.
• Light base: fewer pumps of the base syrup, a little less sweet, a little less smooth.
• Tall: a Tall Caramel Frappuccino Blended Beverage is 260 calories against 470 for the Venti.
• Skip drizzles, crumbles and crunch toppings.
• Add a shot rather than extra Frappuccino Roast if you want more caffeine; a shot is 5 calories.

Starbucks runs each seasonal latte flavor as a Frappuccino in both families. Pumpkin arrives in late August in coffee and crème; pistachio in January; lavender in spring as a crème; horchata and orange cream in summer. They carry the same premium price as the topped classics and leave when the syrup runs out, which at busy stores is before the season officially ends.

Every Frappuccino contains dairy through the milk and the whipped cream, and a nondairy milk alone does not make one vegan. The Frappuccino chips contain soy, the pistachio builds carry pistachio flavor, and the blenders are shared across every flavor including the nut and chocolate ones. The allergen guide lists what is declared for each.

A Frappuccino is the drink to order when you want a milkshake with or without coffee in it. The coffee builds are for adults who want some caffeine with their dessert, the crèmes are for children and evenings, and the plain coffee Frappuccino is the one that can pass as an everyday cold coffee. Order it in a Tall with no whip and it fits most days; order the Venti with everything and enjoy it as what it is.