Starbucks Ristretto Bianco

The Starbucks Ristretto Bianco costs £4.55 and carries 106 calories, built from three Blonde ristretto shots and whole milk in a small cup. It is the strongest milk drink Starbucks UK sells, at 113.4mg of caffeine, and the third shot is the reason.

Blonde espresso is the lighter of the two roasts Starbucks pours. On its own it reads as citrus and toasted grain rather than the cocoa and dark chocolate of the signature roast, and the ristretto cut sharpens that further by leaving out the bitter end of the shot. Whole milk rounds it without burying it. The result tastes brighter and more acidic than a flat white made with the standard roast, and it finishes cleaner.

The coffee to milk ratio is the whole point of the drink. Three shots into a small cup leaves very little room for anything else, so at 106 calories it stays lighter than a Grande Caffè Latte while carrying 24mg more caffeine. Starbucks UK publishes nutrition for the small serving only, which is the size the drink is designed around.

Two things push the caffeine that high. The obvious one is the third shot. The less obvious one is the roast: lighter roasting burns off less caffeine than a dark roast does, so a blonde shot starts ahead of a signature one before the count even matters. That combination puts a single Ristretto Bianco at more than a quarter of the 400mg a day the EFSA sets as the adult limit, which is worth knowing if a second one is on the cards.

It suits people who order a flat white and wish it hit harder. The brightness makes it a better match for sweet food than a signature roast drink, so it works next to a pastry rather than fighting it. Order it in a store with a busy blonde grinder and it tastes noticeably better, because light roast beans go stale faster than dark ones and a slow grinder shows it. The Flat White is the same shape with two signature shots instead of three blonde ones, and the Cortado drops to two shots in a 6oz cup.