How Many Calories in Coffee?

by J. Foster

drinkcoffee.jpg

There is considerable confusion over the caloric content of coffee. Not all coffee drinks are high in calories. Coffee - without additives - is almost a zero-calorie drink.

Here is a complete guide to understanding coffee calories.

Coffee is almost Zero Calorie

espresso.jpgAccording to the USDA nutrient database - an 8 ounce cup of coffee (brewed from grounds) has just 2 (yes two) Calories. The calories come from a tiny amount of protein and some mono-unsaturated oils.

The coffee bean has oils in it (which is why a barista often needs to clean their espresso machine to prevent an oily build up). Sometimes a really bad coffee can be due to the oils in it becoming rancid (this often occurs from dark roasts, which cause a subsequent release of oils - if the beans are stored for a long time the oils may go slightly rancid).

So: coffee beans + water = virtually calorie-free.

It's about Milk and Sugar

starbucksdrink.jpg
When we talk about about a coffee high in calories - we are really talking about the additives we put in it. Caffeine is a bitter chemical and products containing caffeine are bitter - so we tend to sweeten them up - with milk, sugar, or syrups.

The larger the drink volume - the more milk you will be getting. With espresso-based drinks (latte, cappuccino) - the amount of water in the drink is minimal (typically 45mls / 1.5 fl. ounces per espresso shot). You do the math: a 16 ounces Grande Latte from Starbucks will have two espresso shots (~ 3 oz) -- that leaves around 13 ounces of milk (depending on how much foam tops the drink) - so there's 198 Calories already (if the milk is 2% reduced fat).

Add in cream, a pump of flavored syrup, and some sugar - and you are in for a very calorie-dense drink - more like sweetened milk than coffee.

Calories in Common Coffee Drinks

Beverage
Volume (oz)
Calories
Instant coffee
1 rounded tsp dry powder
4
Instant coffee
8
4
Espresso Coffee
1
1
Brewed Coffee
8
2
 
McDonald's Cappuccino
16
130
McDonald's Latte
16
180
McDonald's Mocha
16
330
McDonald's Brewed Coffee (Large)
16
0
Dunkin Donuts Latte
10
120
Dunkin Donuts Cappuccino
10
80
Dunkin Donuts Mocha Swirl Latte
10
230
Dunkin Donuts Brewed Coffee
10
15
Starbucks Brewed Coffee
16
5
Starbucks Caffè Americano
16
15
Starbucks Caffè Latte
16
220
Starbucks Caffè Mocha (no whip)
16
290
Starbucks Caffè Mocha (whip)
16
360
Starbucks Cappucino
16
140
Starbucks Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha (whip)
16
560
Starbucks Caffe Vanilla Frappucino Blended Coffee (whip)
16
430
Starbucks Hot Chocolate (no whip)
16
330

Coffee Extras

Many people use non-dairy creamers in their coffee. However, as the chart below shows - these still contain Calories.
Extras
Calories (per Tablespoon)
Cream
52
Half-and-half
20
Whole milk
9
Fat-free milk
5
Sugar
48
McDonald's Coffee Cream (liquid)
20
Plain nondairy creamer (powder)
33
Plain, light nondairy creamer (powder)
25
Flavored nondairy creamer (powder)
45
Flavored, reduced-fat nondairy creamer (powder)
40
Plain nondairy creamer (liquid)
20
Plain, light nondairy creamer (liquid)
10
Flavored nondairy creamer (liquid)
35
Flavored, reduced-fat nondairy creamer (liquid)
20

The Bottom Line

If you are looking at reducing the amount of calories in your diet and coffee is your thing: It's time to work on that sweet tooth. The best option is to drink an Americano (espresso + water). Believe it or not, espresso drinks have less caffeine than brewed drinks (where the water is in contact with the coffee grounds for a longer time).

Minimize the amount of extras you put into your coffee - and you may well remove a significant amount of Calories from your diet.

See More: Caffeine in Starbucks Coffee. How to Quit Drinking Coffee.
Nutrition sources: starbucks. mcdonald's, dunkin donuts.

More like this in Fast Food and Health · May 28, 2008

43 Comments

MizFit on 05/28/08

(I love that the READ MORE above is How To Quit Drinking Coffee. Immediately harkened me to the oft quoted line from Brokeback Mountain about WHY CAINT I QUIT YOU?)

I guess Im lucky Im all about the black & bitter?

do I need to fess up that, at times, there is a fresh baked muffin close behind the caffeine?

Reply
Jim on 05/28/08

I reckon the best thing to go with that black and bitter coffee is a piece of black and bitter chocolate (dark 80%).

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Elizabeth on 05/28/08

One thing I've always wondered is, how much liquid is contained in the creamers that you get at McDonalds or a diner, etc. It's certainly less than a tablespoon. Yes?

Reply
Regina Wilshire on 05/30/08

I think they're usually a teaspoon?

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Spectra on 05/28/08

I've always kind of thought this was kind of a "no duh" kind of thing...of course black coffee has almost zero calories; it's the additives that make it high-calorie. When I was overweight, I used to get these 20 ounce "cappuccinos" from the local Kwik Trip and they were probably a good 200-300 calories or so because they had a lot of sugar in them. One of the first substitutions I made in my diet when I wanted to get healthier was to just use a little flavored creamer in my coffee. So I cut about 250 calories just like that...pretty easy. I still like my coffee on the sweet side, so I use flavored creamer in it and just figure it into my daily calorie intake. I never get those froufy Starbucks mocha-latte-double-whip-cappuccino things...too expensive and too many calories for me.

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Red on 05/28/08

my heart skipped a beat when I saw it in my RSS feed.

Coffee? Has CALORIES!?!?!

Thank god it's only two. If it had been in the double digits per cup, I'd be consuming hundreds of calories every day.

Reply
Katie on 05/29/08

I know, that would be my problem, too. I drink way too much to continue doing so if it had any more than a couple.

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Tom ( NeoVitin Nutritional Supplement ) on 05/28/08

I would not have guessed that coffee only had 2 calories on its own. Its interesting how much of a difference little things like milk and sugar in coffee make in our caloric intake and ultimately our overall health.

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soozeequeue on 05/28/08

Coffee is no longer a habit for me, but I still enjoy a cup every few days. I like it black, but every once and a while I want it a little sweet. A teaspoon of sugar (can't imagine adding a whole tablespoon) at about 16 cals won't kill you once or twice a week. It's the repetitive, addicitive-type coffee drinking with all the little additions of cream-and-sugar-like stuff that adds up and will get you. Most "diets" do list black coffee as a "free food" along with tea.

Reply
Michael Jenkins on 05/28/08

I love coffee. Fortunately black coffee! People often dont include things like coffee when they are following a calorie controlled diet plan. But if you have milk & sugar it certainly adds up.

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Spectra on 05/29/08

I come from a family of black coffee drinkers, but I don't care for it black unless it's really good coffee. I'm sort of a coffee snob; I buy my own fresh roasted beans (My church has a special coffee-trade deal with a small coffee grower in Honduras that we met when we went down there for a vacation. As a "thank you" gift, he offered to provide us with as much fresh roasted coffee as we want for $5 a pound. The farmers get all the money from the sales and we get the benefit of the best, freshest coffee I've ever tasted"), grind them right before I brew it, and drink it only when it's fresh. I've tried to get used to drinking my coffee black all the time, but I just love the flavor of the creamer and the hint of sweetness from a bit of Splenda. I don't drink it all day though...just one cup a day is all I need.

Reply
susan on 05/30/08

I just read (in the book A Taste of Sweet) that most people who drink their coffee black are "non tasters" (have far fewer taste buds). I don't sweeten mine much, but have only had a few cups of coffee in my life that I could drink black. Icko.

Reply
Online Health and Fitness on 05/28/08

It is much better to drink tea rather than drinking coffee. Me I do this for almost 4 years, but still I drink coffee once in a while.

Reply
soozeequeue on 05/29/08

Well, not necessarily. It depends on the tea. And they are both diuretics.

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Christine on 05/29/08

I don't generally drink lattes or cappucinos (they're not that popular where I live anyway, no starbucks here in the North West of Ireland!) but when I lived in Montreal I'd have one every once in a while.

I just treated it like I would a slice of cake or pie: get the smallest size and savour it, and don't eat it too often.

Reply
Rosemary on 05/29/08

When I was dieting I always felt like a bit of a supermodel when I drank coffee. Now I like it dark and a little bitter too.

Reply
Kees on 05/29/08

Shouldn't the calories in your table be kilocalories? I.e. instead of an espresso being only one calorie it is actually 1000 calories. I've seen this confusion more often; lots of people can't tell the difference between a cal. and a kcal. If you check the calorie count on the USDA nutrient database it clearly states kcals!

Reply
Quito on 05/29/08

Yes, they're kcal, which over here is often called a Calorie (with a capital "C"). At least the conversion is simple - whenever I'm in Australia, I have to re-learn the conversion from Joules to kcal.

Reply
Heather on 05/29/08

a food calorie IS a kilocalorie. I normally specify Calorie, but that's not necessary because everyone (err, most everyone) knows a food calorie is a kilocalorie.

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Spectra on 05/29/08

Yeah, food Calories are ALWAYS kilocalories...that's why it's capitalized. 1 Calorie=1000 calories.

What's really confusing is reading the nutritional info in kJ. The conversion is such a pain in the butt.

Reply
Jim on 05/29/08

As the above have said. kcal = Calorie. Which is why the column is headed with Calories (instead of calories).

Reply
MizFit on 05/29/08

stopping back by to see what other people thought...AS I SIP MY COFFEE :)

ahh the irony.


wait, that isnt irony.

I hadnt vowed to give it up.

My bad.

carry on.


Enjoying her 2 calorie drink with her GOODNESS KNOWS THE CALORIES treat,

M.

Reply
Lisa on 06/03/08

hahahahahahahaha....that is soooooo funny....I can change what I put into my coffee, but I will never give it up........LOL....Coffee-aholic in Maine.

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Never teh Bride on 05/29/08

I drink my coffee black and unsweetened and love it! I used to add all sorts of sweet stuff and creamers to my java, but now the taste of sweet milky coffee really grosses me out.

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Trent on 05/29/08

Does coffee make anyone else breakout? It seems like whenever I drink a lot of coffee, I get blemishes a few days later. I also drink my coffee with milk and have heard that milk can cause some people to breakout...maybe that's it? At any rate, I try to avoid coffee for this reason, even though I really enjoy it.

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DR on 05/29/08

There is a study in the May edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that concluded that "The ingestion of Caffeinated Coffee (CC) with either a high or low GI meal significantly impairs acute blood glucose management and insulin sensitivity compared with ingestion of Decaf Coffee. Future investigations are warranted to determine whether CC is a risk factor for insulin resistance.

The subjects drank either a cup of CC or DC 1 hour before eating a bowl of either high or low GI cereal.
The Caffeinated Coffee had the biggest effect - the difference between cereals was negligible.

So cereal before coffee is good and coffee before cereal is bad.

But I need my latte

link to the abstract

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/87/5/1254

Reply
Debbie on 05/29/08

How is it that McDonalds brewed coffee has no calories and yet all the other brewed coffees listed have at least 2 calories?

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JJ on 05/29/08

Debbie,

I noticed that too. I really don't like McD's coffee so I'm willing to sacrifice 2 calories out of my Day just to drink someone, anyone else's coffee.

JJ

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Spectra on 05/29/08

The method that you brew the coffee affects the amount of oil that's in it...the classic drip-brewed coffee that most people drink has the fewest oils in it. French pressed coffee and percolated coffee has more oil in it because there's no filter to catch it.

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soozeequeue on 05/29/08

Not that two calories are ever going to matter much, but I am going to guess that Macdonalds buys such crappy coffee it doesn't have any of those nice natural oils in it. Visually, I love that little skim of coffee bean oil on the top of the coffee. Don't know why I think it makes the coffee taste better - I'm sure it doesn't really matter - but I have an emotional response to good coffee with that touch of oil, and I believe it tastes better.

There's only two coffees I really don't like - Macdonalds (bland) and Starbucks, (awful taste of overroasted beans). And I bet together they sell more coffee than anyone in North America.

Love the Tim's.

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Spectra on 05/30/08

Ugh, I HATE Starbucks coffee. It's way too bitter for my tastes. I don't get why everyone likes it so much. Actually, it's probably so nasty tasting so that people pay more to get the Frappuccinos and the Lattes and stuff...that way, they taste the sugar and whipped cream and hardly any coffee, lol.

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Katie on 06/02/08

Starbucks is pretty gross...In fact, I think the only times I ever have it are when my aunt gives me a bag of the beans or when I am out and so desperate for coffee that I must buy it there (normally, like Spectra, I'm far too cheap). Every time, I realize why I normally don't.

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Supplements Canada on 05/29/08

I always find it funny when people say that coffee is good for you and then add tons of cream, sugar and other flavourings. Ignorance is bliss :)

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bijou on 05/29/08

i love coffee. i think i drink about 30 oz (starbucks brewed) of it daily. in my heavier days, i used to put half & half in it. now i just add a splash of skim milk and some sweet 'n' low or splenda. i'll gladly sacrifice 30 cals a day to not feel like crap.

and i NEVER EVER have those fancy blended creamy syrupy concoctions. *shudder*

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healthy-me on 05/29/08

I am also one of the coffee lovers, I have my own full automatic espresso machine at home and it already paid off (instead of drinking the coffee at the Starbucks). I like my coffe with (skim) milk, but NEVER with these sweet syrups. They're taste is so artifical.

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stewart on 05/30/08

Happy to see there is a chat show calories in common coffee drinks and that is not supprised me that Starbucks Caffè Mocha whip have 360 calories. This is the time for me to quick starbucks coffe after seeing this chat :)

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Giselle on 05/30/08

There are also sugar-free flavor pumps. They even have them now at McDonalds. It makes my drink order longer to say "decaf soy latte with 1 pump of sugar-free vanilla." However, that way, I'm getting it with fewer cals. I wish Starbucks would move to the unsweetened Soy Milk. Soy is so healthy, adding in the extra sugar is not.

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Liam on 06/04/08

It's scary to think that a Starbucks Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha has the same calories as a BigMac.

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Jeff on 06/06/08

Wow, great post. I've often wondered about how many calories a regular black coffee has, and have heard many different versions from people.

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Personal Trainer on 06/28/08

Nobody likes the taste of regular coffee. Nobody would drink it unless it had everyone's favorite drug in it. Decaf anyone?

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davesworkout on 07/03/08

You'd be amazed how many old people drink decaf black coffee (Im a waiter).

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Derek on 10/01/08

You are absolutely right. We old people use to drink only decaf Coffee, since it is good for our old health.

Reply
Online Doctors Appointment on 09/28/08

Drinking coffee blocks heart walls so better avoid drinking coffee though it clears some diseases

Reply

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