How Many Calories in a Bourbon Biscuit?
Two dunks into a builder's brew and it's gone: one bourbon biscuit carries 68 calories, from 485 kcal per 100 g. So how many calories in a bourbon biscuit habit? The classic pair beside your afternoon tea comes to 136 — and, whisper it, that beats a custard cream gram for gram.
You'd need to walk about 14 minutes to burn the 68 calories in one biscuit (~14 g).
How long does it take to burn off a bourbon biscuit?
One biscuit (~14 g) is 68 kcal. Enter your weight and the amount you ate to see how long it takes you to burn that off:
lb
| Activity | Time to burn 68 kcal |
|---|---|
| Walking, brisk | 14 min |
| Cycling, moderate | 8 min |
| Swimming, moderate | 10 min |
| Jogging | 8 min |
| Weight training, moderate | 15 min |
Times are for a 154 lb (11 st) adult at a steady pace; change the weight to see yours. The amount is set to the portion in the text (14 g); change it to what you actually ate. BodyPal works this out from your steps automatically.
On this page
- Quick facts
- One biscuit, two, and the tea break
- Bourbon vs custard cream
- How does a bourbon compare?
- The whisky myth
- Most popular bourbon biscuit brands
- FAQ
Quick facts
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | Per biscuit (~14 g) | RI%* (per biscuit) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | 485 kcal (2,029 kJ) | 68 kcal (285 kJ) | 3% |
| Protein | 5.5 g | 0.8 g | 2% |
| Carbohydrates | 66 g | 9.2 g | 4% |
| — of which sugars | 32 g | 4.5 g | 5% |
| Fat | 21 g | 2.9 g | 4% |
| Fibre | — | — | — |
| Salt | 0.5 g | 0.07 g | 1% |
*RI = reference intake for an average adult (2,000 kcal a day). Fibre is not declared on most bourbon labels, and UK brands range roughly 475–488 kcal per 100 g — 485 is the consensus midpoint.
Verified nutrition data
Numbers on this page come from CoFID, the UK government’s Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset, and from manufacturer labels where a branded product is named. Last verified August 2026. How we verify our data →
Read the two columns together and the bourbon's real character appears. Per 100 g it is dense — nearly a third sugar — but a single biscuit is a genuinely small unit, and one biscuit's 4.5 g of sugar is a manageable bite of the NHS 30 g free-sugars ceiling.
One biscuit, two, and the tea break
One bourbon is 68 calories; the standard-issue pair on the saucer makes 136. Add the mug of tea itself, around 13 calories with a splash of milk, and the full British tea break lands just shy of 150.
The trap is not the biscuit — it is the open packet within reach. Four bourbons quietly become 272 calories, the same territory as a chocolate bar, without ever feeling like you ate one. Count them out onto a plate and put the packet back; the plate keeps score for you.
That is also how biscuits fit an otherwise sensible day. The NHS Eatwell Guide files them under occasional extras rather than a food group, and a 68-calorie unit makes the "occasional" part easy to keep honest.
Bourbon vs custard cream
Here is the head-to-head Britain actually argues about: the bourbon's 485 kcal per 100 g against 501 for the custard cream, per CoFID, the UK government's food composition dataset. The chocolate one is the lighter one — the vanilla filling of a custard cream is a touch fattier than the bourbon's cocoa paste.
The gap is small, about 3%, so pick on taste rather than virtue. But if you have been skipping bourbons because chocolate "must be worse", you can stop.
How does a bourbon compare?
| Biscuit or bar | Portion | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Bourbon | 1 biscuit (~14 g) | 68 |
| Custard cream | per 100 g | 501 |
| Biscoff | 1 biscuit | 38 |
| Freddo | 1 bar | 96 |
| Twix | twin bar | 246 |
If you want the smallest possible sweet full stop to a cuppa, a Biscoff at 38 wins; a bourbon at 68 is the best of the chocolate options per piece. Once you reach for a KitKat or a Twix, you have left biscuit country — a twin Twix equals three and a half bourbons.
The whisky myth
No, there is no bourbon whisky in a bourbon biscuit — not a drop, and never was. The name is generally traced to the European royal House of Bourbon, and the biscuit's flavour comes from cocoa in the sandwich filling and the dark biscuit itself.
That matters for one practical reason: nothing about the name signals alcohol, so there is no hidden calorie source beyond what the label states — flour, sugar, fat and cocoa. What you see per 100 g is the whole story.
Most popular bourbon biscuit brands in the United Kingdom
Ranked by how widely each product appears among foods sold in the United Kingdom, from the BodyPal food database of over 3.3 million products. Calories are the figures printed on each label.
| Product | Calories (per 100 g) |
|---|---|
| Crawford's Bourbon Creams | 488 kcal |
| Tesco Bourbon Cream Biscuits | 487 kcal |
| Morrisons Bourbon Creams | 486 kcal |
| Tower Gate Bourbon Creams (Aldi) | 475 kcal |
Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels.
FAQ
How many calories in one bourbon biscuit?
68 calories, based on a typical 14 g biscuit at 485 kcal per 100 g. UK brands cluster tightly between about 475 and 488 kcal per 100 g, so whichever packet is in your cupboard, one biscuit stays within a calorie or two of that figure.
How many calories in two bourbons with a cup of tea?
About 150 calories: 136 for the two biscuits plus around 13 for a mug of tea with semi-skimmed milk. As an afternoon ritual it is smaller than most café snacks — a single pastry can cost double the whole tea break.
How much sugar is in a bourbon biscuit?
About 4.5 g per biscuit, from 32 g of sugar per 100 g. Two biscuits deliver 9 g — just under a third of the NHS daily free-sugars guideline of 30 g for adults, which is why the packet is more dangerous than the pair.
Are bourbon biscuits vegan?
Most mainstream UK bourbons are made without milk, egg or other animal ingredients, which has made them an accidental vegan favourite. Recipes vary by brand and can change, though, so check the label of your specific packet rather than assuming.
Bourbon vs custard cream: which has fewer calories?
The bourbon, narrowly — 485 kcal per 100 g against the custard cream's 501 in CoFID. The vanilla cream filling edges out the chocolate one for fat, so the "indulgent" chocolate choice is actually the slightly lighter biscuit.
Is a bourbon biscuit bad for you?
One biscuit is 68 calories with 4.5 g of sugar — a small, contained treat, not a problem. Per 100 g it is energy-dense at 485 kcal, so the risk is volume: eating a third of a packet is a meal's worth of calories dressed as a nibble.
Why is it called a bourbon biscuit?
The name has nothing to do with bourbon whisky — the biscuit contains no alcohol. It is generally linked to the House of Bourbon, the European royal dynasty, and stuck as the name for the chocolate sandwich biscuit Britain knows today.
How many calories in four bourbon biscuits?
About 272 calories — chocolate-bar territory. At 68 per biscuit the numbers scale fast: half a dozen with tea is over 400. If you tend to eat them in runs, portion two onto a plate and close the packet first.
Similar foods
- Biscoff biscuit — 38 kcal per biscuit
- Bounty — 278 kcal per twin bar
- Snickers — 235 kcal per bar
- Crisps — 123 kcal per 25 g bag
- Twix — 246 kcal per twin bar
- Oreo — 52 kcal per biscuit
Count the biscuits, not the guilt
Photograph the plate and BodyPal logs your biscuits with UK portion sizes, sugar and salt in grams — the tea break stays a treat, and the numbers stay honest.
