Exhausted from walking the mall I sat down and asked the barista if she could please bring my drink…read moreout to me- she gladly complied - drink was delicious- cherry cream cold brew- and rejuvenated me - highly recommend the service, sadly did not get her name but she had a blond pony tail and glasses

I accompanied a family member to a Gloria Jean's stand directly beside a mall food court yesterday…read more I had not expected to order anything, as the prospects of finding a caffeine-free and low-sugar beverage did not appear sound after a brief glance at the menu. As the order was being placed, however, I noticed the selection of fruit drinks. I inquired about what the banana "chiller" contained and was told that it only had ice and a banana purée. I reasoned that the purée would not need any significant amount of added sugar, if any. It is unfortunate that I must share that, even for items that should be a healthy choice by any logical extension of the imagination, establishments like Gloria Jean's Coffees cannot be given the slightest degree of trust in regards to what they find suitable for their customers to consume. Upon the first sip, I immediately marked the unnatural, almost syrup-like sweetness that the beverage had. At this moment I made yet another error; I reasoned that sugar had been added, but it would amount to 30 grams at most. Although this already hits the upper limit of one's daily added sugar intake value, I could not simply discard the beverage that my family member had been generous enough to pay for. Walking towards the mall exit and to our car, the beverage was nearly gone. Some time in the car passed after I sipped the last of the liquid, and I began to receive a general feeling that routinely comes upon me after consuming a sugar-heavy dessert. I was already disconcerted at the fact that an intentional decision was made somewhere to inject a conspicuous quantity of sugar to a menu item of enough apparent simplicity and natural sweetness as a fruit smoothie (in this case called a "chiller" to differentiate it from what I later learned is an even more astronomical sugar and calorie count beverage served under the guise of a drink at Gloria Jean's). Partly out of curiosity and partly out of disgust, I decided to visit the Gloria Jean's Coffees website to see how much sugar I had just consumed. I then learned that the Banana "chiller" beverage contains 99 grams of sugar in a regular size. The feeling one receives after being violated, duped, or used then came upon me most strongly. The length to which I have already gone to write this review might appear histrionic to some, but allow me to elucidate the absurdity of the aforementioned figure. 99 grams of sugar is more than three times the amount that a human should consume in one day according to the National Health Service. Although I do not suffer from any health condition that made my body unable to absorb this blow, one must ask himself why this would have to be processed in the first place. The human body is not designed to be intaking such quantities of this substance. And this is only one item one might consume throughout the day. Why is it that such inhuman amounts of sugar must be added to these beverages? There comes a point when an item is already so overwhelmingly sweet that the taste buds are desensitized-- that adding any more sugar only contributes to a higher calorie count. Beverages with figures as high as 160 grams or more from Gloria Jean's menu well exceed this threshold. It was determined that I nevermore would patronize Gloria Jean's Coffees the moment I detected the copious amount of added sugar. The banana flavour itself was not remarkable, although the overbearing sweetness likely precluded my detection of any subtleties of taste. It was then determined that I would be as vocal as possible to all that I know to avoid Gloria Jean's Coffee for the sake of their own health. Corporations across the developed world-- and in America especially, where consumer protection standards such as those in Europe are evidently not as comprehensive-- continue to add sugar to items that truly do not need it, seemingly because a desire from consumers is perceived (other harmful substances such as food dyes are beyond the scope of this piece). The processes used to analyse consumer trends and come to the conclusion that 160 grams of sugar is appropriate in a beverage requires serious re-evaluation. There come times when those making decisions of this nature must ask themselves-- we are able to do this, but must we truly?