The Best Keto Starbucks Drinks
Let's talk Keto Coffee!
Sounds like a whole lotta fun, right?
I am a self-proclaimed coffee addict. And honestly, I don't even need my coffee to be great, I just need it to be caffeinated to help me keep up with my busy lifestyle.
I'm sure ya'll know what that's like.
As busy people, you know just how convenient Starbucks is. They're in nearly every town, they have a pretty dang efficient drive-thru, and you can use the app to order, then walk in and pick up your order with no wait. The app, you guys, is my favorite invention of all time (except for maybe Ketologie)
Also, their coffee is highly caffeinated.
When you're eating Keto, or THM:S, or Low Carb, you don't have to miss out on Starbucks, in all of it's caffeinated glory.
In fact, Starbucks has TONS of options that will allow you to stay in ketosis, or keep within THM:S or low-carb guidelines.
So skip the confusion in the line and order your decandent drink with clarity with my handy guide.
You May Also Like:
- Maple Pecan Latte (Copycat Starbucks, Low Carb, Keto, THM:S, Sugar Free)
- Pumpkin Spice Creamer (THM:S, Low Carb, Ketogenic, Sugar Free)
- Protein Iced Coffee (THM:S, Low Carb, Ketogenic)
- Easy Fathead Bagels (THM:S, Low Carb, Ketogenic)
- Pumpkin Spice Latte (THM:S, Low Carb, Ketogenic)
- Pumpkin Cake Roll with Cream Cheese Filling (THM:S, Low Carb, Ketogenic, Sugar-Free)
Keto Coffee: Starbucks Edition
First of all, let's go over some guidelines for Keto and THM:S, so there's no confusion about what you're ordering and why.
Ketogenic Guidelines:
A standard Ketogenic diet is 75% fat, 20% protein, and 5% or less carbs. Read the full Ketogenic Diet 101 post here or How to Calculate Your Keto Macros if you want more information about it. Within a 2,000 calorie diet, that would be:
- 167g Fat
- 25g of (net) Carbohydrates
- 100g of Protein
So, if you're sticking with strict Keto, you have to keep your carbs per meal very low. (Side note: Net Carbs are Total Carbs – Fiber….just an FYI)
Personally, I try to keep my drinks to 4 net carbs or less, but what you choose for carbohydrates in your drinks is entirely up you. As long as it fits your macros for the day, you're good to go.
Want to Learn More About Keto?
- The Ketogenic Diet 101
- My 60-Day Ketogenic Experiment Results
- How To Get Rid of Keto Flu
- 7 Signs You Are In Ketosis
- How to Calculate Your Keto Macros
- The Right Way To Use an Exogenous Ketone Supplement
At Starbucks, you'll stick with heavy cream, stevia/monk fruit, sugar-free syrups, and cinnamon. I'll give you a bunch a different options in just a moment.
Trim Healthy Mama “S” Guidelines:
Keto Macros fit very well into THM:S Guidelines. However, if you're not strict keto, or carb-cycling on Trim Healthy Mama, the requirements are not quite as strict.
In fact, a THM:S meal includes less than 10 grams of (net) carbs, and you must wait at least 2.5 hours in between a THM:S meal and a THM:E meal.
Read about how Trim Healthy Mama works in the post Trim Healthy Mama 101, and get answers to all your THM questions.
So, at Starbucks, you'll want to use heavy cream, full-fat milk, cinnamon, and Stevia. Try and stay away from the sugar-free syrups, since the artificial sweeteners used in them are not THM compliant.
Bring Your Own Starbucks Add-Ins:
- Collagen
- Powdered MCT Oil
- MCT Oil Single-Serve Packets
- NuNaturals Single Stevia Packets
- NuNaturals Pumpkin Spice Stevia Syrup
Ok, now that that's out of the way, here are the best Keto Starbucks Drinks.
The Easy Choices:
- Drip Coffee (Hot Coffee): Drink it black or add stevia, cream, sugar-free syrups, and maybe even a sprinkle of cinnamon if that's your thing. I drink my coffee like this as often as I can, but if I'm getting my fix on at Starbucks, I'll grab a handy BrainBrew MCT Oil Packet and add it to my coffee to make it bulletproof.
- Iced Coffee: Black coffee is great, but if you need a little extra, try heavy cream, and sugar-free syrups or stevia. Make sure to skip the sugary flavor syrups. I always keep a little container of MCT Oil Powder and Collagen in my car to make Bulletproof Iced Coffee.
- Espresso: Nope, no carbs in espresso! Get it with steamed milk for a quick pick-me-up.
- Cold Brew: Cold brew tastes better if you're drinking it black (less bitterness), and I recommend adding some MCT Oil Powder and Collagen to it along with heavy cream and stevia or sugar-free vanilla syrup (f you wish).
- Hot Tea: Most of Starbucks' hot teas are delicious and caffeinated. Add a bit of your sweetener of choice.
- Cold Tea: Same as with hot tea. Just make sure to mix the sweetener in well, as it won't dissolve as easily in iced tea.
More Complicated (but delicious) Keto Drinks:
- An Americano: The Americano is a classic, and it's perfectly Keto or THM:S friendly if you order it with some heavy cream. You can also add a bit of sugar-free syrup, but keep it light because the flavor can easily overpower this drink.
- A Cappucino: This really simple drink is just espresso and foamed milk. It's really great plain, or if you like some sweetness, add sugar free syrup or a packet of stevia to it. (I also like the NuNaturals stevia packets and their Pumpkin Spice Stevia Syrup….delicious!)
- A Latte with Almond or Coconut Milk: All Starbucks now carry coconut and almond milk and will gladly include it in your latte instead of regular milk, since regular milk tends to be fairly high in carbs.
- A Latte with Heavy Cream: I like the balance of half heavy cream and half regular milk. You can also add sugar-free syrup.
- Skinny Mocha: Order it with half heavy cream and half water.
- Coffee Light Frappucino: Again, order with half heavy cream and half water, then add a few pumps of sugar-free vanilla sweetness to pump up the flavor and sweetness level.
- Sugar-Free Cinnamon Dulce Light: Yup, order it with half heavy cream and half water. So delicious!
Save Money & Keto Coffee from Starbucks
Ordering Keto or THM:S at Starbucks is actually pretty easy once you have a game plan, but it's also really easy to make copycat Starbucks Drinks in your own home and for a fraction of the price.
Protein Iced Coffee: 30g Protein, THM:S, Low Carb, Ketogenic
Maple Pecan Latte (Just Like Starbucks) THM:S, Ketogenic, Low Carb
Pumpkin Spice Latte (Just Like Starbucks) THM:S, Ketogenic, Low Carb
Pumpkin Spice Creamer: THM:S, Ketogenic, Low Carb
Pumpkin Cake Roll with Cream Cheese Filling: THM:S, Low Carb, Ketogenic, Sugar-Free
xoxo,
Gretchen
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Be aware. The almond and coconut milk at Starbucks is not the same as what you buy at the grocery. Irks loaded with extra sugar and carbs.
I’ve been hearing that! I’ll definitely have to look into this more!
They have sugar free almond milk
The Coffee Frappuccino Light is NOT Keto-approved. The Light Frappuccino base has LESS sugar, but it definitely has sugar. I’ve worked there for years and I’ve NEVER been able to drink those.
It all depends on how YOU do keto. If you’re taking a more IIFYM approach, then it’s totally ok, or if you focus more on eating for nutrition, it’s probably not ok. Be careful saying that something “is keto” is “isn’t keto” because it’s all very subjective, based on your personal definition of keto. There are many approaches.
The skinny mocha is not keto!! I just left there ordering your recommended skinny keto. When I put the nutritional info in its has 27 carbs! Starbucks does not have a sugar free mocha syrup. 😞 So mad I ruined my diet.
Hi Julie! Per the starbucks website, the skinny mocha sauce has absolutely no sugar in it, and is sweetened instead with sucralose. If you ordered it with anything but heavy cream, the dairy will have carbs (milk has 12 carbs per cup, a venti would have 2 cups, so 24 carbs). You may have pulled the wrong nutritional info, but as long as you ordered it with heavy cream a venti will have >8 net carbs. (skinny mocha ingredints: https://www.starbucks.com/menu/drinks/espresso/skinny-mocha ) So, yes, if you ordered it without heavy cream, you will see 24 carbs in sugars that are from the milk. Next time order it with heavy cream 🙂
The skinny mocha syrup does have sugar. It’s similar to how the “skinny” frappuccinos have less sugar, but they are labelled as skinny because they contain less calories. None of the frapps are keto-friendly as they all contain light frappucino syrup, which has 27 grams of carbs for a grande. The only syrups that are keto-friendly are the ones actually labelled sugar-free, not skinny.
Read the ingredients here: https://www.starbucks.com/menu/drinks/espresso/skinny-mocha (I gave you this links last time…did you read the ingredints?) Per starbucks website, a 16 oz Skinny Mocha has no sugar listed in the ingredients. The carbs you see in the nutrition facts are from the sucralose and the milk (1 cup of milk has about 13g of carbohydrates) so most of the carbohydrates are coming from the milk. The sucralose does not add sugar, nor does the skinny mocha sauce, the milk does, so when you sub heavy cream or make it breve, you save tons of carbohydrates.
I think the issue here may be that not all stores carry the skinny mocha syrup, and in stores that don’t, a “skinny” mocha would be interpreted as a boat mocha. So you’d just want to ask if they have the skinny mocha syrup, which is indeed sugar free. Sadly, it’s true about the almond and coconut milks containing sugar. 🙁 I was a barista until about six months ago.
Oh, ok! I didn’t know that! Thanks for the info!
Thanks for sharing! Is there anything on their food menu you would consider Keto?
That’s really tough. If your macros will allow, the Bacon Gouda Sous Vide Egg Bites have 11 net carbs, but that’s kind of high. Or, if you just eat the eggs and cheese out of one of their protein boxes that would be ok too.
A NONFAT mocha! Gahhh autocorrect!
First of all, thank you for making this post. Most of the things I am seeing on this list are orders I am very familiar with. So it is very relevant and accurate.
I am a fellow keto-dieter and employee of Starbucks corporation. I drink a “coffee-light” Frappuccino with sugar-free cinnamon dolce, made with heavy cream at least 2-3 times per week. Most of the time it is my lunch. However, I don’t make it with half heavy cream and half water. I use the full amount of heavy cream because our Frappuccinos aren’t made with much liquid at all. They’re mostly ice. There is a tiny amount of milk and Frappuccino roast at the bottom of the cup before it goes into the blender with ice, to be whirled into *magic*! The most dangerous part of our Frappuccino, however, isn’t the milk content, it is the base. When you order a light version, you are getting the light base which has half the sugar of the regular base. But a tall gets 2 pumps, a grande gets 3 pumps, and a venti gets 4. Those pumps are 5net carbs each. So I never get more than 1.5 pumps of light base no matter what I order. If you get a venti, it does have a significant amount of liquid so that’s the only one I’d go half hwc/water on. Otherwise, I’d just get a tall coffee light Frappuccino made with: hwc, with sf cinnamon dolce, add whipped cream and cinnamon powder, with only 1 pump of light base. Or a grande of the exact same thing with 1.5 pumps of light base. If you prefer a venti I wouldn’t go more than 2 pumps. I hope this makes sense and I hope it helps!
Good information – thank you! Could I update the article to include this information?
This is so helpful for me. Thank you. Wondering if a frap with espresso instead of the light base would work better for Keto? Also, I must know, you mentioned the whipped cream. Can I have that on Keto. I would do a sugar free cinnamon dolce frap made with espresso instead of light base with Almond milk and whip. Thoughts?
I’ve been to several Starbucks that do not have the light base anymore (unless I’m using the wrong word when i ask). Any suggestions for what to do now? And any idea about net carbs for the new drink?
I have a question, you say the Base has carbs in it. Would there be Base in the Vanilla Bean Frap? I usually get a grande vanilla bean, 1 scoop of vanilla bean powder, 1/2 heavy whip 1/2 water, an affogato shot no whip
I have been hearing a lot about Starbucks adding Classic Syrup to all drinks. A simple Iced coffee (venti) actually has classic syrup (sugar water) added to it. About 30 grams of carbs and sugar.
I always ask for NO syrup in my iced coffee.
As well as NO syrup in my chai latte (only tea bags)
Great tips!
I’ve worked for Starbucks for over 20 years. I’ve seen a lot of things come and go, and am very familiar with the products. A few things to be noted:
1. The coffee, with the exception of the blonde roast, is not highly caffeinated. Starbucks roasts its coffee to a darker level than most coffee companies. The more a coffee is roasted, the more the flavor will develop, but it will have less caffeine. The regular medium roast drip coffee (Pike) and dark roast option have less caffeine than the blonde option. The espresso has the least caffeine of all the options, so if you’re looking for more of a punch, get an extra shot.
2. The light Frappuccino base has been discontinued, but even if you do find a store that still has it, know that it contains half the sugar of the regular base, so is definitely NOT kept approved. (To answer the above reader’s question about whether or not espresso can be added in place of the light base, the answer is no. The coffee used has nothing to do with the base – the base is is what binds the beverage components together in order to make it the milkshake-y consistency everyone knows. If it is replaced with espresso, the drink will separate within minutes, and won’t taste anything like a Frappucccino.)
3. The coconut and almond drinks we use are definitely not keto. They are loaded with sugar and stabilizers. Steer clear.
4. The skinny mocha IS sugar-free, but contains sucralose, which can disrupt hormones and affect ketosis. Also, it tastes disgusting, and most of use who work with it wretch when we smell it. It’s seriously foul stuff.
5. Sucralose is also the sweetener for our other sugar-free syrups (vanilla and cinnamon dolce).
6. The Bacon Gruyere Sous Vide egg bites have 9g carbs and 19g protein, and 22g fat, so if you’re willing to go slightly high with carbs for breakfast with great flavor, it’s worth the trade.
Thanks Alex – these are great tips! Do you mind if I incorporate a few of them in the article update?