Protein Packed: The UK Summer Drinks for Fitness

• McDonald’s cold drinks have the most protein with an average of 7.8g in each drink.
• Pret a Manger’s Chocolate Shake & Starbuck’s Iced White Mocha tie for first, both with 11.2g of protein.
• Pret a Manger’s Iced Mocha has the least protein with 9.3g.

Nothing quite relieves the sweltering heat of the day than a crisp cool drink during the summer months. However, to align with fitness goals and progress, many will want to take a further look into the drink’s macros; so, which cold summer drink provides the most protein?

Intrigued with finding the most protein filled summer cold drinks menu, Brewsmartly.com collated the top five most popular drinks outlets by quantity of UK located stores. Using the nutritional information provided on each of their respective websites, each drink was then ranked according to the protein content.

The Most Protein Filled Drinks Chain

Brewsmartly.com searched through the nutritional information of milkshakes, frappes, iced coffees, and smoothie drinks in each menu and can reveal that the most protein filled summer drinks menu belongs to McDonald’s!

McDonald’s has an average of 7.8g of protein per cold drink, which is the highest average protein content of all chains featured in this study. With only four drinks in the top 10, it also comes out on top with the highest average calorie content per drink (295) and carbohydrates (carbs (50.3g)).

Pret a Manger (Pret) is second, only 2.3g away from the top spot with an average 5.5g protein per drink. Pret also only has four drinks in the top 10, of which the average cold drink contains 212 calories. It also has the lowest averaged fat content of just 4g.

Taking third place is Costa Coffee (Costa) with an average of 4.7g of protein, and perhaps unsurprisingly a lower calorie average of just 186 per cold drink.

In fourth is Starbucks, with 4.4g of protein and 183 calories in the average cold drink. Starbucks has the lowest average carb content with 23.2g per drink.

Although Caffè Nero was included in this study, none of the drinks made it into the top 10 for protein content. However, out of the five outlets it has the lowest protein content (2.7g) and lowest average calories per drink (120).

The Most Protein Packed Drinks

After analysing the top 10 protein packed drinks, it has been found that in joint first place we have two drinks from two separate drink chains. Pret’s Chocolate Shake contains 11.2g of protein, contains the same amount of fat (11.2g) and is highest for carbs (71.5g). Starbuck’s Iced White Mocha also contains 11.2g of protein, takes the top spot for fat content with 20.7g and is also high in carbs with 49.8g.

Following closely behind in joint third are all the McDonald’s milkshakes. Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry and Banana each contain 11g of protein; assuming the machine isn’t broken, and you can actually get one! All shakes are above 7g of fat and above 60g in carbs.

The Least Protein Packed Drinks

Pret a Manger’s Iced Mocha takes the crown for lowest protein content (9.3g), with a fat content of 5.2g and carbs 24.4g.

Closely followed by Starbucks’ Iced Cappuccino (9.7g protein) and finally Starbucks’ Iced Caffe Mocha (9.7g protein).

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Methodology

1. Menus of the top five leading cold drink outlet chains by physical stores in the UK were analysed. The following outlets were included in the study.

Pret A Manger

Starbucks

McDonald’s

Costa Coffee

Caffe Nero

Data pertaining to each cold drink’s nutritional content was collected from each outlet’s respective menu. The variables collected include:

Volume (ml)

Protein Content (g)

Fat (g)

Carbohydrates (g)

Total Calories (Kcal)

2. To account for varying drink volumes, the protein to total calories ratio was calculated. 

The ratio was calculated by multiplying the protein content in grams by 4 and dividing by the total number of calories. Protein content is multiplied by 4 because 1 gram of protein contains 4 calories.

3. The drinks were ranked by the protein to calorie ratio.

Credit for the research:  http://brewsmartly.com/.