The Big Problem Aldi Shoppers Have With This Almond Milk Iced Latte
Even with almond milk added, store bought lattes are not the best for you. This fact was reaffirmed when the Aldi shopper Instagram account Aldi Favorite Finds featured the newly found Barissimo almond milk iced latte. As of writing, 1,324 Aldi aficionados had liked the post, with some showing excitement about the dairy-free option.
One of the images posted to Instagram gave most pause, however. In it, Aldi Favorite Finds obliged followers with a side-by-side comparison of the nutritional charts for Barissimo's almond milk latte and the regular milk one. The good news is that the almond milk latte is indeed healthier. The bad news is that it's not that much healthier. The regular latte contains 260 calories, 2.5 grams of saturated fat, and 32 grams of added sugar per bottle. The almond milk one feeds you only 170 calories, no grams of saturated fat, and 25 grams of added sugar per bottle.
"These pre-packaged coffees always have soo much sugar in them," one complained. Another agreed, "Way too much sugar!" It emphasizes that in the case of many pre-made items, health is relative.
Why is there so much sugar?
It is worth asking why there is so much added sugar for a latte. As HuffPost noted in a comparison with Starbucks, a Snickers has 27 grams of sugar. So, the almond milk Barissimo iced latte is barely healthier than a candy bar.
Finding out why proves more difficult, as Barissimo appears to be a private label for Aldi to market coffee products. However, a Cheapism piece from earlier this month described Barissimo coffee cups as "Starbucks taste on an Aldi budget." So, inferring a similar reason between the two may direct us close to the answer.
The main reason why so much sugar gets dumped into a Starbucks coffee, according to a barista on Quora, is that Starbucks roasts their coffee beyond the realms of decent taste in order to produce the same cup over and over. As Starbucks is a chain, this makes sense, as their entire business model relies on being able to reliably produce a cup of coffee.
So, it is likely that the Barissimo iced lattes sold by Aldi have a candy bar's worth of added sugar is because their pre-made status demands a consistently sweet taste. A regular coffee with varying levels of roastedness would not be consistent enough to build a brand upon.