A cup of milk tea = 14 sugar cubes = 4 cups of coffee = 8 cans of Red Bull! Real reviews of 27 online celebrity milk teas will shock you

Thepaper.cn reporter Zou Juan and intern Zhang Zhuoran

Can milk tea be drunk as Red Bull?

Recently, the Shanghai Consumer Council purchased 51 samples (basically covering Shanghai's popular milk tea) from 27 milk tea shops to conduct a nutritional comparison test.

The pictures in this article are from: WeChat official account "Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee"

On July 24, the test results were announced: the highest sugar content in a cup of "Ren Zai Cha Zai" silk stocking milk tea is equivalent to eating 14 sugar cubes at one time. Many milk teas contain caffeine, and the highest caffeine content in a cup of Letangkou original handmade pulled tea (sugar-free) is higher than 8 cans of Red Bull.

No sugar-free milk tea is actually sugar-free

Sugar is often used in milk tea to adjust the taste, but excessive sugar intake will increase the risk of tooth decay and overweight and obesity.

The "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2016)" recommends "controlling the intake of added sugars to no more than 50 grams per day, and preferably below 25 grams."

According to the Shanghai Consumer Council, milk tea with normal sweetness was purchased in each store for this test. Test results showed that the sugar content of the 27 samples with normal sweetness ranged from 11 to 62 grams per cup, with an average of 34 grams per cup.

The sugar content of three samples exceeded the recommended daily intake of 50 grams. The reporter of Thepaper.cn found that the one with the highest sugar content in the above test was the "Ren Zai Cha Zai" silk stocking milk tea, which contained about 62 grams of sugar per cup, equivalent to eating 14 sugar cubes at one time.

In order to meet the diverse needs of consumers, many operators will provide milk tea with "less sugar" or "no sugar". But in reality, the "sugar-free" claimed by operators mostly means that no additional sugar is added during the production process, but it does not rule out the possibility that sugar is contained in the raw materials.

In this regard, the comparative test also purchased 24 milk teas that claimed to be "less sugar", "low sugar", "sugar-free" or "sugar-free". The test results showed that 20 samples that claimed to be "sugar-free" had actual sugar content between 1.2-5 grams per 100 milliliters, with an average of 2.4 grams per 100 milliliters. However, the national standard requires that the sugar content of pre-packaged foods labeled "sugar-free" should not exceed 0.5 grams per 100 milliliters.

The milk cap is high in fat

Does milk tea always contain milk?

To illustrate this problem, the experimenters deliberately linked trans fatty acids and proteins in milk tea. Cao Huliang from the Shanghai Nutrition Food Quality Supervision and Inspection Station said that under normal circumstances, high trans fatty acid content means high protein content. If the same set of data shows high trans fatty acid content and low protein content, it can be inferred that it is not milk or other dairy products, but creamer or artificial fat.

Although there is currently no law in China that prohibits the use of creamer, the Shanghai Consumer Council believes that at least since the merchants do not clearly label the products, it can be assumed that they are not using "real ingredients."

The comparative test found that four samples from Kawanka and Auntie Milk Tea contained high levels of trans fatty acids and low protein content, indicating that the quality of the milk raw materials was poor.

In addition, the survey shows that nearly 60% of consumers often choose milk tea with milk cap, but some people do not know that milk cap actually contains a lot of fat. In this test, a cup of milk tea with milk cap with the highest fat content can provide 41 grams of fat, while the recommended daily fat intake for adults is less than 60 grams.

The caffeine content in milk tea is higher than that in original tea and coffee

In this test, the caffeine content of milk tea exceeded that of coffee and far exceeded that of Red Bull.

In terms of food, caffeine is mainly found in tea, coffee and caffeinated beverages. In terms of total content, a cup of American coffee (medium cup) contains 108 mg of caffeine, and a can of Red Bull contains 50 mg of caffeine.

The comparative test found that the caffeine content of 51 samples was as high as 270 mg/L on average, with the highest being the Letangkou Original Handmade Pulled Tea (sugar-free), which had a caffeine content of 428 mg/cup, which is roughly equivalent to 4 cups of coffee or 8 cans of Red Bull.

"We were also shocked when we first saw the result," said Tang Jiansheng, deputy secretary-general of the Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee. In order to verify the accuracy, the experimental group conducted a test under the guidance of tea experts: a cup of ordinary Tieguanyin tea leaves has a caffeine content of 187 mg/L, while a cup of a certain brand of tea bags has a caffeine content of 438 mg/L. "That is to say, caffeine in tea dust is easier to precipitate and dissolve than in tea leaves," said Tang Jiansheng.

However, it should be pointed out that this comparative test found that among the 27 stores where samples were purchased, only one store gave a "warm reminder" that "the elderly, children, and pregnant women are not recommended to drink silk stocking milk tea", and most consumers were unaware that milk tea also contains caffeine.

Based on this comparative experiment, the Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee recommends that milk tea operators should raise their sense of responsibility, indicate the true attributes of the products, indicate the content of the relevant ingredients of the milk tea and the people who are not suitable for it, and use real ingredients and scientific raw material formulas.

In addition, the Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee specifically reminds consumers that the caffeine content in tea is 2-4%, which is higher than the caffeine content in coffee beans (1%). Therefore, due to the type of raw materials and the current production process, the caffeine content of milk tea may be very high, and children, pregnant women, and patients with hypertension or heart disease should especially avoid excessive drinking.

Image provided by Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee

Editor of this issue: Xing Tan