Starbucks Egg Bites with Three Cheese & Ham

Starbucks Egg Bites with Three Cheese and Ham cost £4.75 and carry 177 calories with 13g of protein. Free range sous vide egg bites with three cheeses and ham, served warm.

13g of protein for 177 calories is the best ratio on the entire breakfast menu. The bacon roll carries 21g but at 400 calories, so per calorie this is comfortably ahead, and carbohydrate is 5.7g against the roll's 49g. For anyone eating low carb or simply wanting protein without bread, nothing else on the board competes.

Sous vide is the reason for the texture and it is not marketing. The mixture is cooked slowly in a sealed bag in a water bath, which holds it below the temperature at which egg protein tightens and squeezes out water. That is why these are custardy rather than rubbery, and why a microwaved egg muffin is a different food entirely.

Three cheeses rather than one is doing more than sounding generous. A single cheese at this quantity would dominate; three at lower quantities each contribute a different thing, which is the same reason a cheese sauce is rarely made from one variety. It is why these taste savoury and rounded rather than simply of Cheddar.

Sugar is 0.4g, the lowest figure of any item Starbucks sells, food or drink. Salt at 1.5g is the real cost and it is higher than the egg white version at 1g, which is the cheese and the cured ham between them. Saturated fat is 5.4g and total fat 11g.

Two bites is the standard serving and the portion is smaller than people expect from the price. That is the honest weakness of the item: excellent nutrition, modest volume, and a reasonable chance of wanting something else an hour later. Paired with a piece of fruit it becomes a proper breakfast rather than a snack.

They carry a gluten free label, which the egg white bites do not, so of the two these are the ones suitable for coeliac readers. Allergens are egg and milk. Prices reach £5.50 on delivery.