8 Ways To Make Your Go-To Starbucks Order A Little Healthier

Starbucks has what seems to many like an endless number of drinks on its menu, not to mention the dozens of ways to customize each of them. While this can be a bit confusing at times, the ability to customize your order to a T also presents you with the opportunity to make it a little healthier, too. If you're looking to make your morning coffee more nutritionally dense or want to get some extra protein out of your favorite Starbucks order, there are actually quite a few ways to do so.  

From swapping sugar for honey to give your Starbucks latte antioxidant effects, to choosing the best Starbucks milk for your protein needs, this popular coffee chain has plenty of surprising ways you can get more from its drinks. Maybe you want to function better at work, avoid sugar crashes, or get a few extra vitamins and minerals in — these simple Starbucks hacks will help you do all of that and more. Here are a few of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to make your Starbucks drink healthier. 

Many dairy drinks on the Starbucks menu will default to using 2% milk. This is a good choice for those looking for a well-rounded drink — 2% milk contains about 8 grams of protein per cup, and offers nutrients like calcium, potassium, and vitamin A. Opting for nonfat milk will give you a similar protein content but with less fat, as the name implies.

You can also add protein-boosted milk to your drink at Starbucks with as many as 36 grams of protein. The protein milk contains whey and is currently only available at Starbucks as a 2% milk add-in, according to Starbucks baristas on Reddit. This is an easy way to get a solid amount of protein in with your morning latte, without sacrificing any of the calcium and vitamin benefits of dairy milk.

If you're more interested in the nondairy side of things at Starbucks, note that each of its nondairy milks is sweetened, though the exact amount of sugar in each one can vary. For example, the brand of oat milk (which happens to be the Starbucks nondairy milk we ranked the highest) Starbucks uses changes depending on location. If your location happens to use Dream Oatmilk Barista, a 1-cup serving has 4 grams of sugar, while Oatly Oatmilk Barista Edition contains about 7 grams of sugar per 1-cup serving. These are added sugars, versus dairy milk's average of 12 grams of natural sugar per cup. 

There are two options for syrup customization at Starbucks. The first is to opt for a sugar-free syrup. Sadly, most of Starbucks' sugar-free syrup options have been taken off the menu, leaving just sugar-free vanilla syrup. If you want to enjoy your favorite Starbucks drink with less sugar than the drink normally comes with, you can adjust the number of syrup pumps the drink uses instead. 

For example, most grande-sized Starbucks drinks (16 ounces) come with four pumps of syrup or sauce. The fewest syrup pumps a drink automatically comes with is typically two, which usually applies to the short Starbucks size. You can choose any number of syrup pumps you like — from zero up to 12. When ordering in person, simply ask your barista to adjust the number of syrup pumps for you. On the app, you can customize your syrup pumps when you click on the drink you want to order. 

Why might you want to opt for honey in your drink instead of a Starbucks syrup or plain ol' sugar? There are several benefits to honey that sugar doesn't have, including its antioxidant and prebiotic effects, as well as the vitamin and mineral content it provides. In terms of taste, honey is pretty similar to sugar when used in a latte.

Another reason why you might want to replace sugar with honey in your coffee is because honey has a lower glycemic index. If you're prone to blood sugar spikes or are tired of getting sugar crashes in the middle of your workday, honey might be a good sugar alternative for you. That's not to say that honey can't still cause a blood sugar spike, but it tends to be easier on the digestive system than sugar.

Starbucks offers honey packets along with its packets of sugar and artificial sweetener. Your Starbucks may keep these packets behind the counter, so if you want to add them yourself, you might need to ask for one. You can also order your drink with honey packets at the register or customize it on the Starbucks app if you'd prefer to have the barista mix your honey in for you.

Protein cold foam is a good way to add foamy texture, flavor, and, well, protein to your favorite Starbucks drink. Starbucks' protein cold foam can be a good option for those who just don't love the taste of whey, since there's less protein milk in cold foam than there would be in a typical latte. A drink with protein cold foam has an additional 15 grams of protein in it (for a grande cup). However, you could opt to double up by adding both protein milk and protein cold foam to your drink. 

Adding protein cold foam to your drink will cost up to an extra $2, depending on location. You can add protein to vanilla, chocolate, and banana cold foam flavors. The protein mix used for the cold foam and the protein milk is the same, which means that the mix itself contains dairy.

With some drinks on the Starbucks menu, a portion of the sugar content comes from toppings. If you're looking to cut out sugar where possible without compromising your favorite drink, the toppings can be a good place to start. Depending on what you're looking for, you could both lower the syrup pumps in your drink and remove the toppings, or simply start by removing one or two of a drink's toppings.

Common toppings at Starbucks include whipped cream, mocha drizzle, caramel drizzle, and sprinkle or crumble toppings. On Starbucks' holiday menu, for example, the Sugar Cookie Latte comes with a sprinkle topping and whipped cream, while the Chestnut Praline Latte has a chestnut praline topping and whipped cream.

Any drink with a sauce drizzle is created in either a crosshatch or swirl pattern by your barista, which means there's actually quite a bit of hidden sugar going into your drink if it has caramel or mocha sauce. The crumble and sprinkle toppings are smaller in quantity, so they aren't as heavy in sugar as the drizzle, but Starbucks' in-house whipped cream certainly is. 

Did you know that you can add plain tea to many drinks at Starbucks? Besides simply ordering from the range of plain iced teas (green, black, or hibiscus), you can also get a tea lemonade, or replace the water in your Mango Dragonfruit Refresher and Strawberry Açai Refresher with tea. You can also get a tea sweetened with your favorite syrup or with honey.

In terms of antioxidants and immune-boosting properties, adding green or black tea to your drink at Starbucks is a great way to make it better for you. Green tea can offer energy, useful gut bacteria, and has even been shown to improve cognition. Black tea also helps gut flora and can offer antioxidant benefits — just keep in mind that black tea has a higher caffeine content. Hibiscus tea, on the other hand, is completely caffeine-free.

For iced tea or cold drinks that have tea added to them, Starbucks uses its signature iced tea; it is made in batches from large tea bags. However, Starbucks offers a wide range of hot teas, too. You could try adding a hot tea bag to your Starbucks Chai, or even mixing up the chain's traditional London Fog by replacing the Earl Grey tea bag with another tea offering. These are both options that can give you benefits from the herbal teas the chain has.

If you order a flavored latte with cold foam, you'll get syrup in both the drink and the foam. For example, a grande Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks includes four pumps of pumpkin sauce, with an additional two pumps of pumpkin sauce in the cold foam. If you want to add cold foam to your drinks, a good way to do so is to leave the syrup out of the beverage itself and rely on the cold foam to flavor your drink. 

Generally, it's a better idea to leave your drink unflavored and your cold foam flavored than to do the opposite. That's because the cold foam is the first thing that hits your taste buds when you drink, and you often have to sip through a layer of it before you get to your coffee. Unflavored cold foam just tastes like airy milk — though if that's what you want in a drink, we won't judge. Alternatively, some Starbucks drinks will automatically come with cold foam, which you can ask to have left off.

Starbucks' Refreshers don't contain quite as much sugar as other sweetened Starbucks drinks, but they can range from 19 grams of sugar to 21 grams of sugar per grande-sized drink. If you want to slightly lower this amount, you can always ask the barista to put extra water in your drink. Each Refresher is made with a concentrated base and then diluted with water and ice. It's easy for your barista to put in less base and more water; since the concentrate is quite flavorful, you'll still end up with a delicious (if slightly more diluted) Refresher.

Refresher-based drinks like Starbucks' Dragon Drink or Pink Drink are good options if you want to add a few extra nutrients to your drink. These drinks are made with mango dragonfruit or strawberry açaí Refresher base, respectively, and use coconut milk instead of water. Coconut milk offers healthy fats and vitamins that the water-based version of these Refreshers doesn't have. If you prefer, you could opt for oat milk or almond milk for other nutritional benefits — just know that the color of your drink won't look quite as pretty.