Starbucks Iced Caramel Macchiato

The Starbucks Iced Caramel Macchiato costs £5.60 for a Tall and carries 201 calories in a Grande with 26.6g of sugar. Vanilla syrup goes in first, then cold milk and ice, then the espresso is poured through the top and caramel sauce is crosshatched over the surface.

The iced version holds its layers far better than the hot one. Cold milk is denser than steamed milk and the espresso sits on it rather than sinking through, so the dark band stays visible for several minutes and the drink genuinely tastes different from top to bottom. Vanilla sits at the base, coffee at the top, caramel across the surface. A stir turns three flavours into one, which is why baristas hand it over with the straw pushed only halfway in.

Calories run 146 in a Tall, 201 in a Grande and 222 in a Venti, which puts the iced Grande 13 calories below the hot one at 214. Sugar is 26.6g out of 27.9g of carbohydrate. Caffeine holds at 89.1mg through Tall and Grande and reaches 133.7mg in a Venti, following the iced latte pattern rather than the americano one.

The straw position is a deliberate detail rather than carelessness. Pushed halfway, it draws from the middle of the glass where coffee and milk meet, which is the balance the drink is designed around. Pushed to the bottom it pulls neat vanilla syrup first. Baristas are trained to hand it over that way and most customers push it down without thinking, which is the commonest reason a first sip tastes far sweeter than expected.

Half the vanilla syrup is the standard cut and takes roughly 5g of sugar off, and the caramel sauce on top carries enough sweetness that the drink still reads as intended. It suits a warm afternoon and it survives being carried far better than the hot version, since there is no foam to collapse. The Caramel Macchiato is the hot original, and the Iced Caffè Latte is the plain version at 128 calories.