Starbucks Signature Smoked Ham & Cheese Toastie

The Starbucks Signature Smoked Ham and Cheese Toastie costs £6.80 and carries 489 calories with 28g of protein and 2.5g of salt. Oak smoked ham and a blend of five cheeses with bechamel and American style mustard on cheese topped sourdough.

2.5g of salt is the figure to know before ordering this. It is the saltiest food item Starbucks UK sells, ahead of the bacon roll at 2.3g, and it is roughly 42 percent of an adult daily maximum in one sandwich. Cured ham, five cheeses and a mustard sauce each bring their own, and the cheese baked onto the crust adds more again.

Everything else about it reads well. 28g of protein matches the tuna melt, saturated fat at 9.1g sits below the grilled cheese toastie, and at 489 calories it is only 15 above the vegetarian panini. For a hot sandwich of this size the numbers are reasonable everywhere except salt.

The bechamel is the component that separates a signature toastie from a cheese sandwich pressed flat. A milk and flour sauce holds the cheese in suspension so it stays creamy under heat instead of splitting into oil and solids, which is what happens when cheese alone is pressed hard. It is why these do not go greasy.

Cheese baked onto the outside of the bread is the detail that gives these their name, and it is worth knowing what it does. A layer of cheese in direct contact with the grill goes past melting into browning, which produces a thin savoury crust with a different flavour from the cheese inside. It is the same reaction that makes the edge of a lasagne worth having.

Allergens are spelt, wheat, mustard, rye and milk, and no dietary labels apply. The spelt and rye come from the sourdough. Prices reach £7.60 on delivery. The grilled cheese toastie is the vegetarian version at £6.60.