How many calories does coffee have?

Black coffee has almost no calories. A 240ml cup contains about 2 calories, and a 30ml espresso shot contains about 1. Nothing you add to a brewer puts calories in the cup.

Everything else comes from what goes in afterwards. Milk, sugar, jaggery, syrups, whipped cream and chocolate sauce are where the numbers climb, and a large blended frappe can reach 700 calories or more.

Calories in black coffee

Coffee beans do contain small amounts of protein, oils and soluble compounds, but so little dissolves into the water that the finished drink is effectively calorie free.

Brewing method barely changes it. A pour over, a French press and a filter cup all land within a calorie or two of each other, because they all extract roughly the same soluble content from a similar dose of coffee. Espresso is more concentrated but comes in a much smaller volume, so a single shot still sits at around 1 calorie.

Cold brew is the one worth a note. Because concentrate uses far more coffee per millilitre, undiluted concentrate carries slightly more, but once diluted for drinking it lands in the same place as everything else.

What actually adds calories to your coffee

Milk and sugar account for almost all of it, and the amounts add up faster than most people expect.

Two teaspoons of sugar and a good splash of milk turns a 2 calorie drink into something closer to 100. That is not a reason to avoid it, but it is worth knowing that the coffee itself is almost never the issue.

Calories in common coffee drinks

Milk volume is the main variable, so drink size matters more than drink type.

These assume full fat dairy milk and no added sugar. Switch to skimmed or unsweetened almond milk and a latte drops considerably. Add two pumps of syrup and it climbs by a hundred.

If you want to understand why a cappuccino and a latte differ so much despite using the same espresso shot, the guide to latte vs cappuccino covers the milk ratios in detail.

Does coffee break a fast?

Plain black coffee does not break a fast. At around 2 calories, it is well below any threshold that triggers a metabolic response, which is why it is the standard drink during fasting windows.

Adding milk does break it. Even a small splash brings enough calories, and more importantly enough protein and lactose, to prompt an insulin response. The same goes for sugar, jaggery, syrups and anything creamer based.

Black coffee, americano and espresso are all safe during a fast. Cappuccino, latte, flat white and anything with milk are not.

How to keep your coffee low calorie

The simplest answer is to drink it black, and the second simplest is to make the coffee good enough that you want to.

Most people add sugar because the coffee underneath is harsh, and harsh usually means stale beans, the wrong grind or over extraction rather than the coffee's natural character. Fresh, properly brewed coffee tastes sweet on its own, which removes the reason to sweeten it.

Three things get you there. Buy coffee beans with a roast date on the bag and use them within a month. Grind fresh with a burr grinder rather than buying pre ground. And brew with a method that suits how you drink, since pour over and filter methods produce a cleaner, sweeter cup that needs less help than a badly pulled espresso does.

If you still want milk, switching from full fat to toned or skimmed cuts a latte by a third without changing the drink much. Unsweetened almond milk cuts it further, though it does not foam as well.