Now, anyone who has listened to The Nutrition Couch before will know that LeeAnne and I are rather big coffee fans, especially Leanne now she has a seven week old baby girl.
Me uh, Coffee.
In this day and age comes in many different varieties. You can find it in supermarkets, you can pick it up at all the takeaways, or you can be making your own. So today we wanted to chat through two different supermarket coffee options in case a daily trip to the coffee shop doesn't fit into your schedule or your budget. Hi, I'm Susie Burrell and I'm Leanne Hood and we bring you the Nutrition Couch, a bi weekly chat on everything
that you can find in the supermarket. And I have to say, Leanne, coffee would go pretty close to be my favorite thing in the whole world. And I would even admit that to my family. There is nothing I enjoy more in my life than my daily coffee. And I have a feeling from your post that you're pretty similar, especially at the moment, I very much.
Am and I was saying I haven't actually had my coffee this one before I dropped on this podcast, and I am struggling.
I can't even believe you rocked up with this. I would literally not be able to do that, so it hats off to you. But we have you know, I know a lot of people go to the coffee shop and indeed my daily trip to get my latte is a big part of my day. But not everyone can do that, and certainly there are a number of supermarket options which are actually great tasting and growing. So there's a whole group of us who like convenience or even
the cost effectiveness of coffee. So we've chosen two different products today, and there's different varieties in each of these ranges, but you'll get the gist. Even though I've picked, for example, this one's the next cafe cappuccino pre mixes which come in the sachets.
Now there's latte. There's a million different ones.
So I didn't choose cappuccino for any other reason that I thought it was pretty common. What we're going to describe is pretty similar, no matter which whether you choose latte or any of them. If you look there, but they're pretty similar. So if I go through the ingredients of the sachet, the first ingredient is milk solids. Then it's eighteen I put my eyes is so bad. I thought it was thirteen eighteen percent coffee, vegetable oil, sugar, glucose, syrup,
multiedextro flavor and stabilizers. And then the little chocolate shaker that you also get has sugar, cocoa, multifiers, flavors. But that's really small part is if you've used them. That's a tiny part. Compared to the actual sashet now per sashet, which is twelve point five grams, it comes in at two hundred and ten kilodules as in a gram of protein, almost two grams of fat, one point six saturated, eight point seven grams of carb, four point six grams of sugars,
and seventy five milligrams of sodium. So if we compare that leand to the cappuccino that you would get from the local cafe, not skim. If I'd just say a regular cappuccino, you'd be looking at about oh four. I would sort of say it's sort of four hundred three twenty to four hundred, between eighty kilodeels and one hundred
depending on the size. You're probably getting what three four up to five grams of protein from the milk and a cappuccino, and you'd be getting less than ten grams of carbohydrate overall, keeping in mind that it doesn't have as much milk as a latte does, so certainly these are slightly lower in calories. You would like the sugars in this form, you're getting some added sugar from it compared to a cappuccino, which is the naturally occurring milk sugars.
And you know, I have to say I don't have overly strong opinions on this product because on one hand, you would say, well, it's more process than a coffee that you buy from the store. We don't have a caffeine measure on this, so a shot of espresso coffee that you'd find in a cappuccino is got one hundred milligrams of caffeine. I don't know what the caffeine rating of these are. I don't know even if it's similar or not. Maybe you know that leand.
No, they don't listen at all, and I've tried to look it up multiple times, and that's sort of It is a bit of a problem because I've had some clients who are wanting to get pregnant or in their fertility get journey. So actually looking at caffeine content is important. But I've looked on the website. It just doesn't listen to caffeine content. So I imagine that it's low, but that's that's not really based on anything. So I think just if you are caffeine sens it it'd be a little bit wary.
Well, I think it would be low. First of all, I'm surprised that i't list it. That's fascinating to me. But I think it would be low because if I work backwards, so as I said, a shot of espressos about one hundred milligrams of caffeine. My memory of instant coffee is that a tea spoon of instant coffee is about fifty milligrams.
Does that sound right to you?
I think between forty and sixty yep, yep.
So that's sort of half an espresso shot.
Now, if this is only eighteen percent soluble coffee, and say that's looking at twelve point five grams, so that's say twenty percent of that, we're looking at maybe two point five to three grams of coffee itself. That's low because say, if you're looking at a teaspoon, you're getting fifty, So I'd say it would be thirty milligrams or less.
That's what I would roughly calculate it to be, so just a.
Bit more than a black tea or like an English breakfast tee or so I think that's around about twenty milligrams, so maybe a little bit more than yeah, a standard cup of black tea.
That's just my very rough calculation, so nowhere near equivalent to the cappuccino that you would buy a coffee shop.
And I think these packets can be a little bit misleading.
Because, let's be honest, it's the service twelve point five grams, and that's less than a tablespoon of weight. So even though when we look at the ingredient list, we say, right, it's got milk, coffee or hang on, it's got vegetable oil, it's got sugar, it's got gluecose, the amounts of going to be very small, very very small. So I sort of am like, well, yes, it's probably better to have the real thing. If you're looking for a caffeine hit. There are far better options than using this. Is it
going to cause any drama? Not really, It's not really going to affect much in your day. I wouldn't be having four a day if you had one, because it is processed. I know in this range there is a skim milk cappuccino variety which will be a little bit lower in fat. Again, I know there's latter. I know
there's oat milk variety. So I would just pay attention to how much added sugar was going into some of these, because you will be getting some sugars from the milk in this which is contributed to that four point six grams versus if you're looking at something like an oat milk or almond milk version, it's probably more added sugar.
But again, in the grand scheme.
Of things, it's pretty low, pretty insignificant, not going to harm you. And if that's sort of something you enjoy at the end of the day for sixty calories, I wouldn't be the least bit concerned.
What do you think?
I agree, I'm I don't mind them. I'm not gonna say I love them my favorite things in the world, but I have definitely drunk them in the past. I think they're very affordable. I mean, at the moment I'm looking at Wilwars online, Susie and you can get the box of ten cappuccino sachets for three dollars fifteen. It's
like thirty cents a sachet. So when you're comparing it to a cafe based coffee, which is you know, four or five six dollars to keep you getting your arm and milks and your oat milks in your double shots and whatnot, you're get in charge more. It is very, very affordable, and as you said, in the grand scheme of things, it's such a small amount that even the opal the saturated fat content is one point six grams. It's a really really minimal amount. The sugar is a
minimal amount. So yes, they are a bit processed, but I'm absolutely fine with these. I think they're a good option for a lot of people. They're very affordable. As you said, they don't really give you much of a caffeine hit. If I was to have one, I'd probably put it an extra teaspoon of you know, instant coffee pabit in there. But I do have a lot of clients who use them, Susie A because they are a
little bit more caffeine sensitive, so they like these. Compared to a coffee shop cafee coffee shop coffee, and also it's something it's just like a nice warming drink that sort of gets them through over morning tea or over afternoon tea. So I do have a lot of my clients who use these, and I'm more than happy to sort of allow them to do that, because, as you said, it is a really low calorie sort of drink. But if you are, you know, they are made to be
you know, made up on just basically hot water. You're not supposed to add anything extra into it. So if you are adding an extra sugars, extra milk to you know, make it a bit colder so it's not as hot as well, that will obviously contribute to more calories as well, but just made on plain hot water. I actually think it's not a bad option, Susie. I think for a
lot of people it can work really well. But as you said, it's it's very low caffeine, So if you are needing two, three, four of these a day to get your caffeine hit, you probably want to go to something else.
And I think if you did prefer it with milk, I would certainly be suggesting a skim milk to keep the fat low overall, and once you're doing that, you're sort of coming into more of a substantial snack. So if you wanted to have this as a morning or afternoon tea with milk, that would be where that would fit, because then you're getting closer to twenty grams of carbohydrate. You're getting close to ten grams of protein probably for another hundred calories or so, so it's still calorie controlled.
So that would then fit that bracket of a snack with some protein in it, or I would say just be mindful. I do have some clients who might see this as a free food and then have several per day, and certainly that's not what we would suggest because it does have some added sugars to it, So I would suggest keeping it with a meal or with a snack rather than thinking.
It's a free food.
But I'm with you, certainly, I think that if you enjoy the flavor and it's something that gives you a hit and stops you going and having something much sweeter or grabbing some chocolate through the day, it's a really good choice. And as I said, there's many different varieties out there. You can get a low fat variety, you can get the oat, the almond and I would just be keeping the sugars as low as you can when
you're selecting from those different varieties. Okay, well, the other one I pick, so I could have gone and done another one.
Of these sachets.
But actually what I'm particularly interested in, Leanne is the growing range of the pre made cans of coffee. Now these are very different nutritionally to the sachets we've just described. These are generally available in the cold section, both with the dairy at the back of the supermarket, but also on the way out as the quick pickup. So I've chosen the Boss variety of ice latte. Now there's more
and more. I think Little Creatures is another one. I know they're very popular in Japan, these coffeees, and they've had coffee vending machines for a long time. They're quite small, it's two hundred and thirty seven meal, so it's that smaller can size that we also see in soft drink. And if we look perserving, the calories are still pretty low.
Coming in at my eyes are so badly in sixty just over sixty calories, also fifty two calories and two hundred and eighteen kilo duels one point four grams of protein even though this is a latte, so that's suggesting that it doesn't have a huge amount of milk in it. One point two grams of fat, so very low in both total fat and saturated fat, nine grams of carbohydrate, and six point three grams of sugars, so if we
were comparing that to a regular latte, it's lower than that. Again, so a regular small late would be about one hundred calories and about ten grams of protein and are slightly more sugars overall.
So the interesting thing with these.
Now, this one doesn't actually state the caffeine amount on that label, but most of them are much higher in caffeine. So these ingredients are a brood coffee coming in first, So unlike the sachet, which is a milk based drink with a little bit of coffee through it, this has actually got a much higher concentration of briod coffee, water, milk, coffee, extra sugar, milk solid and regulators to keep it stable.
And a sweetener, so this is using actually an artificial sweetener to give it its flavor along with sugar.
It's a is it what sweetener.
Is that it doesn't list to sweetener. But I'm just saying it uses a sweetener along with sugar, so they've added both in there, so they've sort of kept the overall It tastes very sweet when you drink it, but they've kept the overall amount of sugar down by adding in a little bit of sweetener as well.
It's an artificial sweetener. Yeah, this is an acis sulfamine potassium, so similar to what we'd find in diet coke or coke zero. So they're not using a natural sweetener at the moment in this brand. So that's something to pay attention to because I would definitely be preferring a natural sweetener in products like this. So there's in this there's a long black variety that is slaste. There's also some
of them are quite high in sugars. So what I would suggest, first of all, they're definitely Have you tried one, man.
I have. They're very strong, so, as you said, I'm quite surprised. I actually don't list the amount of coffee or caffeine in there, because I remember taking a sip and being like, oh wow, I actually find them very strong. And I first, as you mentioned, tried these when I was in Japan. It's it's all who ranged these, you know, coffees in a can. And this brand, the Boss Coffee, is actually local from Japan and been imported from Japan as well, so they're actually they're a lot stronger than
the next cafe hot sachets. And also in terms of the cost SUSI, they're a lot more expensive. So they're three dollars fifteen. That's un sale at Woolwast. They're normally three dollars sixty five for one can versus, as we said, the next cafe sachet. If youre getting them half price, there only thirty cents full price, they're sixty cents, So sixty cents for one compared to three dollars sixty five
for a can of coffee. There's a substantial price difference, but there's also substantial caffeine difference just from the taste of it as well. So again just be a little bit wary if you are caffeine sensity. Well, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, we'll have another condition that caffeine does seem to effect us. Be a little bit more wary with this brand as well, because it brewed coffee is the top ingredient.
I was sure they always listed the caffeine. I am sure they've lifted the caffeine before, but I'm just looking on website that don't have it either. I would say I would say they've got at least fifty milligrams. That would be my estimate.
I'd say potentially even a little bit more, if not closer to I mean brood coffee is the top ingredient.
Yeah, one, just with the concentration. Now, there's such a wide range of them. First of all, they're expensive. As you say, they sell out in my local supermarket every week, so I think that they're incredibly popular, and hence we're seeing more and more of them. Certainly, I would be opting for a variety that didn't have an artificial sweeter.
And the reason I say that is that I find those drinks in general tend to prime you to want more sweet food, so I would be mindful of that, and I would certainly be looking and look for the ones that contain as little added sugar as possible, because some of them have up to twenty grams of sugars perserve, which is more than you would get from a supermarket, sorry, a cafe coffee. So they're a really interesting product because
they're obviously selling going crazy. They're reasonably low in calories, but you're certainly going to get a stimulatary effect and even some sugar from that without the protein that you would get from a milk based coffee.
And there's a lot of varieties for people who want to avoid dairy.
There's a number of oat varieties, black varieties that don't contain any milk, So that gives people who are opting to move away from dairy the option in a caffeinated drink.
So you know, if I was honest.
With you, leanne particularly for the cost, I would be more tempted if I like to call coffee to put some concentrated coffee, if I had an espresso machine at home, or even just some instant coffee and mix it and make a nice coffee myself, even with some skim milk, because that's a much cleaner product. You know exactly what's gone into it, you're not using sweetness, and you can control the milk or whichever you want to add to it. So I certainly don't recommend them. I think they're expensive.
I think that if you like them, i'd definitely be opting for one that didn't have the added sugars in it and just check the.
Labels, but they will.
They're quite a shot of coffee, I would say, so, at least fifty milligrams. I reckon up to about eighty. If we think about what's in a red bull that can so as they get them up to about eighty, so I'd estimate they've got between fifty and eighty milligrams of caffeine perserve.
Actually, I don't mind them, Susie, And I mean, I know we say they're expensive, but when you think about it grand scheme of things, a cafe shop coffee is actually expensive. You know, they're five six dollars we're paying for our lattes or our cappuccinos versus this is only three sixty. So, I mean, when you think about it, they're expensive compared to the next cafe sachets. But when we think about it compared to our regular coffee shop that we go to every day, Susie, they're probably a
little bit more affordable. So from a price perspective, you may think that they're more affordable, or you may think that they're more expensive. We'll leave that one up to you, but I don't mind them. Again, I'd be happy to
recommend something like this for my clients. And in the grand scheme of things, I think the sugar is quite low, but as you said, you're not getting the good whack of protein that we would get if you were making your own at home based on a cup of skim milk or getting your own from the coffee shop, which is based on generally half to one cup of milk
as well. So the protein is quite low. But if you're really just doing it for the caffeine hit, and you know you're getting little bit of sweetness out of it as well, I don't really see a problem recommending these. I think it can be a nice sort of little treat for a lot of people. And as you said, they are very popular. They're sort of becoming all the rage as is you know, sort of cold press type coffee as well. So I definitely don't see a problem
with it. But I would sort of keep an eye on your overall caffeine intake throughout the day because it does you know, caffeine has a half life of about six hours, so if you're having any sort of caffeine past about three four five o'clock in the afternoon and you're having problems sleeping at nighttime, you're probably overdoing your amount of caffeine, So just keep an eye on that.
And caffeine for some people does tend to make them a little bit more jittery, a little bit more anxious, gives them sort of heart palpitation, So just keep an eye on your amount of caffeine each day. I think it's just an important take home message.
Because they're quite small, like two just under two fifty mili for three bucks. Ye, I think that's quite expensive. When you're not in that one, you're not really getting the benefit of dairy and the protein, so you're literally paying for just the coffee and water. I'm just looking at a different one that's in supermarket which has forty percent whole milk, and that's coming in at twelve point six grams of sugars, which will be coming from some
of the milk, but it's also got added sugar. So I think my recommendation would be to clients that if you're enjoying them all like them, it's convenience, really seek out the why that are much lower in sugars, because basically you're adding more sugars into your diet that you wouldn't normally be having. And it's quite a small serve, like two thirty meal like that's tiny. That's a very small coffee at the coffee shop for three dollars plus.
So yeah, I wouldn't they wouldn't be in my budget, but I could work them in if I had two with my clients.
Yeah, David really likes someonees. We buy another brand where it's straight. It's cold breast coffee in a can. Basically it's incredibly strong. I pop one can one day and took a sip and nearly spat it out. It was so strong. He can get probably three cold coffees out of the one can. So he just decant the cold breast coffee into a cup, tops it up with skim milk, and then he'll get probably two to three iced coffees out of that. So he really likes that because we
don't have a good quality coffee machine at home. So whenever the sort of the coffee shops are clothed, or he wants another shot of coffee or iced coffee in the afternoon, he'll use that can. But he doesn't drink. He sort of gets two to three drinks out of the one can, so I guess from a cost perspective, that can make it a little bit easier, and he sort of ends up making his own, so he gets a full plain black iced cold breast coffee with any milk will should have added, then sort of makes it
up with milk themself. So that could be another way that people could enjoy that at home if they don't have a nice coffee machine and they do want a better quality coffee than just what instant coffee is. So each to their own. There are a couple of different ways that you can play with it. But yeah, I think it's really just going to fit in with your lifestyle. And if you think that this does, I don't think
it's overall a bad product at all. Probably just the cost and the small amount is something to be aware.
Of, and also that you're not getting if you're not getting the milk based, you won't be getting any benefits of calcium that you would get from an actual milk coffee if you're buying that.
But I'm with you.
I think that if you like them, there's certainly some good options out there, and just check your labels. So I think we'll continue to see this growing supermarket. A lot of the ones that we see are imported, they're not produced locally, and I think over time we'll get more and more variety, similar to the sachets, which give people real choice and potentially tick off nutrition or boxes that we're looking for. So watch this space, coffee lovers.
But that brings us to the end of the Nutrition Couch product review.
For another week.
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Thanks for listening.
Get you guys on Sunday.