Starbucks Cold Brew Menu USA

Every drink below shares the same slow-steeped base. What changes is the syrup underneath and the foam on top, so each write-up focuses on those two things and on who the drink suits.

Cold Brew

The plain Cold Brew is the foundation of the section: coffee, water and ice, nothing else. The long steep gives it a rounder, less acidic taste than a hot brew poured over ice, and a Grande carries 5 calories with 0 g of sugar.

• Lowest calories: 5 calories in a Grande before anything is added.
• Strongest plain cup: 205 mg of caffeine, more than the Iced Coffee at 185 mg.
• Trenta available: the only size that reaches 30 fl oz, priced at $5.85 at the reference store.
• Cheapest cold brew: $5.25 for a Grande, the lowest ticket in this section.

Nutrition tip: a splash of 2% milk adds about 20 calories and one pump of classic syrup adds another 20 with 5 g of sugar. Both together still keep a Grande under 50 calories.

Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew

The Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew is the best-selling flavored cold brew for a reason. Vanilla syrup goes in the cup, cold brew fills it, and a float of sweet cream sinks slowly through the coffee. It is sweet but not dessert-sweet: 14 g of sugar in a Grande against 31 g in the pumpkin version.

• Middle ground: 110 calories, well under the foam-topped drinks.
• Cream, not foam: the sweet cream is poured, so it mixes in rather than sitting as a cap.
• Fair price: $5.45 for a Grande at Starbucks (Northgate Way & I-5), Seattle, only a little above the plain version.
• Easy to lighten: ask for one pump of vanilla instead of the standard build to cut sugar.

Nutrition tip: the Venti jumps to 200 calories because both the syrup and the cream scale with the cup.

Salted Caramel Cream Cold Brew

The Salted Caramel Cream Cold Brew pairs caramel syrup in the coffee with a salted cream cold foam on top. The salt cuts the sweetness enough that it reads as a coffee drink rather than a candy. A Grande has 240 calories and 14 g of fat, nearly all of it from the foam.

• Savory edge: the salt in the foam keeps 26 g of sugar from tasting cloying.
• Foam cap: the cold foam stays on top, so the first sips are foam-heavy and the last are mostly coffee.
• Nondairy option: the Nondairy Salted Caramel Cream Cold Brew drops to 150 calories.

Best pairing: a plain croissant or a butter-based pastry. The drink already covers the sweet side.

Chocolate Cream Cold Brew

The Chocolate Cream Cold Brew uses vanilla syrup under the coffee and a chocolate cream cold foam on top. It is the closest a cold brew comes to a mocha, with 240 calories and 25 g of sugar in a Grande, and a slightly higher caffeine figure of 190 mg because the cocoa in the foam adds a little.

• Chocolate without whip: the cocoa comes through the foam, not a sauce, so there is no whipped cream to remove.
• Same price as caramel: $5.85 for a Grande.
• Lighter nondairy build: the Nondairy Chocolate Cream Cold Brew lands at 190 calories.

Nutrition tip: if you want the chocolate taste with fewer calories, order the plain cold brew with one pump of mocha sauce. That is about 25 to 30 calories instead of the full foam.

Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew

The Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew returns every fall and is the heaviest seasonal cold brew on this list. Vanilla syrup sweetens the coffee, a pumpkin cream cold foam sits on top, and a dusting of pumpkin spice finishes it. A Grande comes to 250 calories with 31 g of sugar.

• Seasonal: available in late summer and fall, then gone until the next year.
• Real pumpkin in the foam: the cream uses pumpkin spice sauce, which is where the calories come from.
• Priced above the year-round foams: $6.05 for a Grande at the reference store.
• Sizes up to Trenta: 360 calories at 30 fl oz.

Nutrition tip: ask for the foam with no vanilla syrup in the coffee itself. The foam carries enough sweetness on its own and you save about four pumps of syrup in a Grande.

Vanilla Protein Cream Cold Brew

The Vanilla Protein Cream Cold Brew is the protein entry of the section. A Grande delivers 17 g of protein through a protein-fortified cold foam, which also pushes the drink to 300 calories and 16 g of fat. It keeps the full 205 mg of caffeine of a plain cold brew.

• Most protein in the section: 17 g in a Grande, compared with 1 g in the standard sweet cream version.
• Most expensive: $6.95 for a Grande, the top price in this section.
• Meal replacement territory: 300 calories is closer to a snack than to a coffee.

Best pairing: skip the pastry. This one is filling enough to stand in for a small breakfast.

Toasted Coconut Cream Cold Brew

The Toasted Coconut Cream Cold Brew finishes the base with a toasted coconut cold foam. The flavor is lighter and less sweet-forward than the caramel or pistachio foams, and a Grande is 240 calories. The Venti is unusually close to the Grande at 250 calories, which makes it a reasonable size-up.

• Summer flavor: usually a warm-weather listing, so check the app before planning on it.
• Small size jump: only about 10 calories separate Grande and Venti.
• Standard foam price: $5.85 for a Grande.

The Orange Cream Cold Brew and Pistachio Cream Cold Brew follow the same recipe pattern as the caramel and chocolate versions: syrup in the coffee, a flavored foam on top, and Grande counts of 240 and 250 calories.

The single biggest choice on this menu is foam or no foam. The black base is a 5 calorie drink. Add a flavored cold foam and the same cup lands between 110 and 300 calories depending on the foam. The table puts the plain version next to the most ordered foam builds.

Notice the caffeine column. The plain cup has 205 mg while every foamed version has 185 mg. The foam takes up space in the cup, so the barista pours less coffee, and that is where the 20 mg goes.

Verdict: order the plain cold brew if calories or caffeine are your priority. Order the Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew if you want something sweet without doubling the calorie count.

Starbucks lists the nondairy builds as separate menu items, which is useful because the numbers are not the same. The nondairy foams are made with a nondairy base, and each one lands lighter than its dairy twin.

The gap is largest on the caramel: 240 calories with dairy against 150 without. There is also the Cold Brew with Nondairy Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Foam, which uses the nondairy sweet cream as a foam cap instead of a poured float and sits at 160 calories.

The nondairy versions are priced the same as the dairy ones at the reference store, which is not true of most milk swaps on the menu.

Cold brew is one of the stronger drinks on the Starbucks menu. The figures below are for a Grande, and every size scales with the amount of coffee in the cup, so a Trenta plain cold brew is well above the Grande number.

For context, the Nitro Cold Brew is higher again at 280 mg, the Iced Caffè Americano sits at 225 mg, and a Grande Iced Caffè Latte has 150 mg. There is no decaf cold brew; the steep takes 20 hours, so stores only make the one batch. If you need a low-caffeine cold coffee, an iced decaf Americano is the closest thing.

These are pickup prices for the priced size at Starbucks (Northgate Way & I-5), Seattle. Starbucks sets prices per store, so treat these as a guide rather than a national figure. Cold brew starts at $5.25 and the protein version tops out at $6.95.

Three things move the price: foam, protein, and season. Any cold foam adds about 60 cents over the plain drink, the seasonal pumpkin and pistachio foams add a further 20, and the protein foam adds more than a dollar. Size is the cheapest upgrade; a Trenta plain cold brew is $5.85, only 60 cents above the Grande for nearly double the coffee.

Size matters less than you might expect on the foamed drinks. The foam portion is the same in a Grande and a Venti; what changes is the syrup, which goes from 4 pumps to 6, and the amount of coffee, which adds nothing.

That is why a Trenta Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew at 220 calories is double the Grande while a Trenta Toasted Coconut Cream Cold Brew at 290 is only a modest step up. The plain cold brew stays at 5 calories in every size.

The plain drink is about as clean as a coffee gets: 5 calories, no sugar, no fat, and no dairy. The honest problem is that most people order it with a foam, and at that point it is a 240 to 300 calorie drink with 26 g or more of sugar, which is in line with a flavored latte.

If you want the cold brew taste and a lighter cup, these orders work:

• Plain cold brew with a splash of milk: about 25 calories, no sugar to speak of.
• Cold Brew with one pump of vanilla and a splash of sweet cream: roughly 60 calories.
• Nondairy Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew: 100 calories as listed, the lightest flavored option in the section.
• Any foam drink with the syrup pumps cut to one: saves about 60 calories and 15 g of sugar in a Grande.
• Tall instead of Grande on the pumpkin: 140 calories instead of 250.

Cold brew takes modifications well because the base is neutral. The app exposes every option below under the drink; in person, name the change when you order.

These three sit next to each other on the board and are easy to confuse. The iced coffee is brewed hot and chilled; the cold brew never touches heat; the nitro is the same cold brew pushed through a tap with nitrogen and served without ice.

Cold brew is the middle option on both price and caffeine. Pick iced coffee to save 30 cents and get a brighter taste, pick nitro for the creamy texture and the biggest caffeine hit, and pick cold brew when you want the Trenta size or a cold foam on top.

The Starbucks cold brew section is really one drink with a dozen toppings. If you have never ordered it, start with the plain Cold Brew and a splash of milk; the 20-hour steep does the work and there is nothing to hide behind. If you want sweetness, the Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew is the sensible step up at 110 calories.

Save the foam-topped seasonal drinks for when you want a treat and know it. They are good, but at 250 calories for a Grande Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew, they belong in the dessert column of the day, not the coffee column.