Every difference between UK and US Starbucks including drinks sizes, calories, and exclusive items

• We tried everything on the UK and US Starbucks menus to find out the big differences between the two.
• While the two coffee chains look similar on the surface, there were huge differences between the portion sizes, nutrition, and ingredients.

Following is a transcript of the video.

Harry Kersh: From calorie count to portion sizes, we wanted to find out all the differences between UK and US Starbucks. This is "Food Wars." Now, hot coffees in the UK come in four sizes. Firstly, we have a short coffee, which is 8 ounces.

Joe Avella: The short, 8 ounces.

Harry: Then we have a tall coffee, which is 12 ounces.

Joe: Next we have the tall, 12 ounces.

Harry: Next is a grande coffee, which comes in at 16 ounces.

Joe: Then we got the grande, 16 ounces.

Harry: A venti, or 20 ounces.

Joe: Sensational. And the biggest one, the venti, 20 ounces. And in case you're wondering, it's called the venti because 20 in Italian is venti-twento.

Harry: Just to double-check, we're gonna measure the largest hot coffee in the UK. So, our venti coffee actually came to closer to 18 ounces. Sort that out, Starbucks. Where's my 2 ounces?

Joe: Now I'm going to measure the venti coffee, which should be 20 ounces minus a few sips. Wait. Came prepared. Whoa, come on! I did not drink that much. Oh, Starbucks. That's not...no, that's not even two. That's, like, an ounce.

Harry: Cold coffees in the UK come in three sizes. A tall.

Joe: The tall, 12 ounces.

Harry: Grande.

Joe: We got the grande.

Harry: And venti.

Joe: Here's where things get kind of weird. Our venti iced is 24 ounces. And we have another size up, trenti, right? Trenta, and that is 30 ounces.

Harry: So, a UK cold venti is exactly 20 ounces.

Joe: Yeah, 21. I thought this was supposed to be 24. "How many fluid ounces venti iced"? 24. How much is it, 21? Starbucks, with the ice, you still don't have enough. Aah. I'm taking a sip of every single drink. I'm taking a sip of every single drink! Let's do this!

Harry: Let's compare some seemingly identical drinks to see how much they match up under the hood. So, a venti latte in the UK contains 235 calories, 7.9 grams of fat, 21.1 grams of sugar, and 225 milligrams of caffeine.

Joe: And in the US, the same venti latte has 250 calories, and that's 9 grams of fat and 150 milligrams of caffeine. And you know I'm taking a sip. Mm! Kind of cold. It's been sitting out for hours. So our latte's got more sugar, more calories, and more fat. "The trinity of deliciousness" is what I call it.

Harry: Let's try something a little heavier. If you were to order a venti caramel Frappuccino from a UK Starbucks, it would contain 426 calories, 61.1 grams of sugar, and 117 milligrams of caffeine.

Joe: Harry, your Frappuccino's looking a little sad there, buddy. It looks like all your whipped cream melted, so here's a pro tip from the USA. Mm. 470 calories, 74 carbs, 73 of which are sugar, and 120 milligrams of caffeine. Mm. Damn. Oh, yuck. Yuck! That's what that tastes like?

Harry: Now, it's important to remember that for cold drinks like Frappuccinos, the US venti is actually 4 fluid ounces larger than the UK's. If you were to do the math to work out the nutrition per fluid ounce, the UK actually beats the US in virtually every metric. Let's see if we can get any clues as to why from the ingredients. Now, in the UK, a cappuccino from Starbucks contains just two ingredients, milk and brewed espresso.

Joe: And in the US, our cappuccinos are made from milk and brewed espresso. Look at that. Same thing, finally. Mm. Mm!

Harry: Now, for the most part, the hot coffees in both countries are just those two ingredients in different quantities. Things get a little bit more complicated once you start to add things like syrups, however. For example, in the UK, if you add caramel syrup to your cappuccino, that adds the following ingredients: sugar, water, natural flavoring, concentrate of apple, carrot, hibiscus, molasses, citric acid, and potassium sorbate.

Joe: Aah. Whereas our caramel syrup has sugar, corn syrup, butter, uh, water, heavy cream, nonfat dry milk, natural flavors, salt, mono dig gly-psoriasis? I don't know what that word is. Soy lecithin and sulfites. The point is, our caramel syrup has actual caramel in it. How do you like that?

Harry: Now let's try something with a lot more ingredients. This is a java chip Frappuccino from the UK, and it contains the following.

Both: Ice. Milk. Coffee Frappuccino syrup, Harry: Which is water -- Joe: Which is sugar, water -- [both reciting different ingredients] [fast-forwarding]

Harry: Sodium bicarbonate Joe: Sodium Harry: and a mocha drizzle, Joe: bi-cow-bon ate, Harry: which is water, Harry: mocha powder, sugar, Joe: Soy lecithin, Harry: cocoa processed with Joe: natural flavors, Harry: alkaline, and vanillin.

Joe: oh, and salt. Ladies and gentlemen, it is a "Food Wars" first, the first time something in the UK has an ingredients list longer than something in the US. Time to celebrate, baby! [party horn blowing]

Harry: Here is everything you can only find on the menu at a UK Starbucks.

Joe: And this is everything you can get in a US Starbucks.

Harry: Now, we'll start with a quick disclaimer. One of the big selling points of Starbucks is that you can heavily customize pretty much everything on the menu. To save ourselves doing a million different combinations of exclusive items, what we're gonna do is focus mostly on things that are on the menu as they are, with just a few combinations of syrups and toppings that you can get in one or the other. Firstly, we have this cute little cortado. Secondly, we have a cold foam cappuccino, which is like an iced cappuccino with just some foam on top of it. Then we have some temporary season exclusives. So, at the moment, you can get a peanut butter cup Frappuccino in the UK, as well as a chocolate s'mores Frappuccino, which sounds pretty damn good.

Joe: In the US, along with the blond roast you can get in the UK, we also have a dark roast, and we have something called the Pike Place roast. And that roast is a tribute to the first Starbucks that's near the Pike Place Market in Seattle, Washington. I've been to that Starbucks. It's fine. Exclusive to the US, we have the caramel cloud macchiato. Ooh, I do not like that. The mocha cookie crumble Frappuccino. Woof. The caramel ribbon crunch Frappuccino. I mean, the regular caramel one was gross. Let's see how this one is. Oh, God, it's worse. Oh, it's so much worse. And we also have this, a vanilla sweet cream cold brew. The ice has melted. Woof. I bet that was good six hours ago when it was made.

Harry: And what we've done is combined as many UK exclusives as we can into one drink, which I'm calling the UK Only. We've got some almond, some sugar-free caramel, some sugar-free hazelnut, and some mango, which is gonna be an interesting mix. Hoo! That is sweet. [laughs]

Joe: And of course at the Starbucks in the US, we have our own unique customization's. For instance, pineapple ginger syrup, raspberry syrup, toffee nut syrup, a cascara topping, cinnamon dolce sprinkles. We have chocolate, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla powders and a whole range of cold foams. So, of course, I went ahead and had all those things put into one drink, which I am calling the USA Only. Mm-mm. Mm-mm. Oh, man, that's weird. Nothing in that works together. Mm. [ambient music] [echoes] That caffeine's starting to hit, baby. It's starting to hit! [party horn blowing] [ambient music continues] [tapping table] Starbucks. [laughs]

Harry: Now, this series isn't called "Drink Wars," and thankfully Starbucks has lots of food items. Here are some things you'll only find on the menu at a UK Starbucks. Let's start with the bakery section. Here in the UK, on the bakery menu, you will find a chocolate chunk shortbread cookie. You will find this delightful little gingerbread barista man. You will find this pain aux raisins. We also have some luxury fruit toast, which comes with these little cute pots of jam. And then finally we've got a cinnamon swirl, which is kind of just a cinnamon roll. Our breakfast options are slightly limited. Most of what we have is a range of breakfast rolls, which is just kind of like a breakfast sandwich in the UK, but served on crusty white bread. Some options include a bacon sandwich. Bacon sandwiches are a pretty big deal over here. [slo-mo] I like mine with ketchup. And then also, if you want something a little bit more, you can go for an all-day breakfast sandwich, which is bacon, sausage, and egg all in one roll.

Joe: Here are all the US-exclusive food items. So, a lot of different breakfast sandwiches for Starbucks. This one right here is the Impossible meat sandwich. Spinach, egg, and feta cheese wrap. This is my go-to one. Love it. These egg bites, these little, um, gonna definitely pronounce this wrong, these little so od-vee egg wraps. So od vee? I'll be straight up, I've never had one of these. Holy s---, these are so good. Oh, my God! A lot of baked goods, like this little friendly guy, just in time for the holiday season, a little snowman cake pop. Bunch of different varieties of sugar cookies. I got this one 'cause I think it looks the nicest, but I don't want this at all. Oh, but you know what I do love? Dude. Danishes, especially cheese danishes. We also got scones. So I'm going with the blueberry scone. Can we get Harry's face on there? Scone Harry?

Harry: Sorry to break it to you, Joe, but that is not a scone. Few things to point out. Firstly, it's pronounced skonn, not skohn. Secondly, they should all --

Joe: The marshmallow dream bar, aka a rice crispy treat. What are we doing? We're going to Starbucks in the morning, and we're getting cookies and rice crispy treats for breakfast? No, no. They got bagels. I asked for cream cheese, and they forgot. Pumpkin cream cheese muffin. It's got pumpkin, a little glob of cream cheese in it right there. Muffins are OK in the morning. I'm pro morning muffin. Last and probably least because I've never had one, nor have I ever wanted one, Starbucks in the US have a lot of what they call protein boxes. Chicken and quinoa. Looks like a salad.

Harry: You guys have pretty much all the lunch options that we have, in terms of, like, paninis, sandwiches, and wraps. One thing I did wanna highlight was this, which is a cheese and Marmite mini ciabatta. So, Marmite, as some of you will know, is a spread that's quite popular in the UK. It's like the byproduct of making beer. When the yeast ferments, it kind of leaves, like, a sludge on the bottom of the tank. And that is Marmite. But it somehow tastes really good.

Joe: Harry, no to Marmite. It's bad, stop it.

Harry: So, on top of classic English breakfast tea, we also have some exclusive teas to the UK. So, we'll start with the jasmine pearl green tea, which is just our exclusive version of the green tea. Here we've got something called a youthberry tea, which apparently helps keep you young. Here is some chamomile tea, which is great if you just want something to relax before bed. Then we've got some frozen teas as well. So, this is a frozen iced tea made with apple and kiwi. This is a frozen iced tea with tropical mango. And then this is a frozen strawberry and lime tea.

Joe: Here in the US, we have a lot of exclusive teas too. These are those exclusive teas. For hot ones, we have a jade citrus mint, a peach tranquility tea. Think they missed a trick there, not calling it the peach tranquil-tea. [audience cheering] Conner Blake came up with that, not me. The revved up tea right there. And then for the cold ones, we got the royal English breakfast tea. Why don't you guys have the iced royal English breakfast tea? A matcha lemonade tea, a iced guava black tea, and the passion tango iced tea. Mm, mm, mm!