Starbucks Blueberry Muffin

The Starbucks Blueberry Muffin costs £3.95 and carries 485 calories with 31g of sugar and 2.1g of saturated fat. A vanilla muffin with blueberries through it.

It is the lightest of the three muffins on every measure that matters. 31g of sugar against 44g in the chocolate muffin and 42g in the lemon muffin, and 485 calories against 572 and 511. Fruit displacing sugar and chocolate is the whole of the explanation.

2.1g of saturated fat is the lowest figure in the entire Bakery case, and it is a fraction of what the pastries and tarts carry. Oil rather than butter accounts for most of it, and there is no chocolate here to add its own cocoa butter on top.

Blueberries behave differently in a muffin from most fruit, and it shows in the eating. They hold their shape rather than dissolving, releasing juice in pockets instead of colouring the whole crumb, which is why the muffin is streaked rather than uniformly purple. Frozen berries do this better than fresh, which is what most bakeries use.

The blueberry muffin is also the one most often bought as a breakfast rather than as a treat, and the numbers make that a defensible choice within the case. It is not a light breakfast at 485 calories, but against the other two muffins it is the sensible pick, and against the fruit toast at 491 it holds up.

Fibre sits at 3g and protein at 6.4g, both mid range, and carbohydrate at 66g is second highest of the three. Salt is 0.6g.

The fruit also does something for how long it keeps. Blueberries hold moisture and release it slowly into the crumb, so this muffin stays edible a day longer than a plain one, which is part of why bakeries favour fruit versions for a case that has to last through a day of trade.

It declares soya, egg, wheat and milk, and carries no diet labelling either way. Prices reach £4.70 on delivery, the same range as the chocolate version. The jam and custard doughnut is lighter still at 353 calories.