Starbucks Experiments with Cutting Down Sugar Content of Frappuccinos

In an effort to gain back an increasingly health-minded customer base, Starbucks is testing a healthier iteration of one of its signature menu items, the Frappuccino, in 600 stores in California, Missouri and Rhode Island.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the corporate-owned coffee giant has seen Frappuccino sales drop 3 percent this fiscal year, the drink making up 11 percent of its revenue compared to the 14 percent of revenue it represented as recently as 2015.

Reducing the drink’s notoriously high sugar content without impacting its taste didn’t prove easy. Starbucks reportedly tested 20 types of cream and 70 different vanilla flavorings before arriving at a viable solution. For the new caramel Frappuccino, for example, the changes amounted to 50 fewer calories, 18 fewer grams of sugar and 150 fewer milligrams of sodium than the original 16-ounce drink.