Hey there Savvy Celiacs,
I threw a little caution to the wind after a challenging day with my 4 month old and asked my hubby to get me a sick(delicious) drink at Starbucks. Mmmmmmmmmm. One pumpkin spice latte. Felt so good going down too, all autumnal and warm.
I’m pretty new at this celiac game and wondered yesterday evening why suddenly my bloating tummy was back and why I felt so FAT! I’m not only gluten free but 95% grain free, so there should be NO BLEEPING BLOATING.
Surprise, surprise, today I’m totally symptomatic: Bloated, tired achey eyes, dry burning mouth, thirsty!, and aching bones. Nice! All that for a Spiced Latte. Well now I know.
I mentally reviewed my diet and tried to find the offender to no avail. Then I remember the drink. So, I looked online at www.starbucks.com but they don’t list ingredients, only calories etc…so I called the customer support line.
Tsk, Tsk….Starbucks does not keep a gluten free list. Shabby.
The CS agent was happy(and helpful I might add) to list the ingredients. It was looking good for the Spiced Pumpkin Latte until the end: Caramel color. HA! Got you, you little bastard additive!
So I’ll be glutting on water to recover from the gluten.
Sigh.
4 Comments
August 20, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Hi, I’ve been wondering myself what kinds of hell are in starbucks.
What exactly is caramel color? I know to look out for the big preservative names.. but not really colorings except dyes I know.
Any information would be helpful
September 16, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Damn, I love those things too.
Anyway, caramel color is a syrup made from a variety of items, including barley malt syrup, as well as others containing wheat but on the other end of the spectrum corn and molasses. The irritating thing is that the source is not required to be specified, and we all can agree that if its not required of the company, they aren’t going to do it.
November 5, 2008 at 10:52 am
i have exactly the same reaction to the pumpkin spice latte . if anyone has a good starbucks drink that works for celiacs pls post it – many tks
em
January 4, 2009 at 3:53 pm
I was recently glutened by the Ginger Spice Latte. I’ve read several posts stating all their drinks are gluten free, with the exception of ones with chips. Although they do not publish being gluten free, it could’ve been cross-contamination as they were quite busy. Nevertheless, I’ll be steering clear, I can live without it!