Calories in a Cup of Tea (and What the Milk and Sugar Add)
There is about 1 calorie in a cup of tea brewed black with nothing in it, which per 100 ml rounds to zero. A 250 ml mug barely registers. Everything below is arithmetic on what goes in after the water, because the calories in a cup of tea are really the calories in your milk and your sugar.
On this page
- Black tea at a glance
- What a mug costs, brew by brew
- The builder's brew, costed out
- Green, herbal and the whole-milk version
- Five mugs a day
- How does tea compare?
- Two things people get wrong
- Most popular tea brands
- FAQ
- Similar foods
Black tea at a glance
| Nutrient | Per 100 ml | Per mug (250 ml) | %RI* per mug |
|---|---|---|---|
| Energy | ~0 kcal / ~2 kJ | 1 kcal / 4 kJ | <1% |
| Protein | 0.1 g | 0.3 g | <1% |
| of which sugars | 0 g | 0 g | 0% |
| Fat | 0 g | 0 g | 0% |
*%RI = share of the reference intake for an average adult (2,000 kcal; 70 g fat, 260 g carbohydrate, 90 g sugars, 50 g protein, 6 g salt).
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 →
An infusion is leaves and hot water, so there is almost nothing to count. The trace of protein is the only macro that shows up at all, and at 0.3 g a mug it does nothing for you.
What a mug costs, brew by brew
Four mugs, four totals, and only one of them is about the tea.
| Mug (250 ml) | Calories |
|---|---|
| Black, no milk, no sugar | 1 kcal / 4 kJ |
| With a splash of semi-skimmed milk (25 ml) | 13 kcal / 54 kJ |
| Milk and one sugar | 29 kcal / 121 kJ |
| Milk and two sugars | 45 kcal / 188 kJ |
Tea is one of the most-logged drinks in BodyPal, and it is logged wrong more often than almost anything else, because people log the drink rather than the additions.
Split the mug into its parts and the ranking is not the one most people expect.
The builder's brew, costed out
The splash of milk: +12 kcal. Twenty-five millilitres of semi-skimmed milk at 46 kcal per 100 ml comes to 12 calories, which takes the mug from 1 to 13. That is the single biggest jump in the whole brew in relative terms, and nobody notices it.
The teaspoon of sugar: +16 kcal. Four grams of sugar at 394 kcal per 100 g is 16 calories, so one sugar is dearer than the milk. Milk and one sugar lands at 29 kcal; a second spoon pushes it to 45.
That ordering is the useful part. If you are trimming the brew, the sugar is the more expensive habit and the easier one to lose, and it is also the one the NHS suggests cutting back on for reasons that have nothing to do with the calorie count.
Green, herbal and the whole-milk version
Green and herbal tea: infusions like the black one, at 0 to 1 kcal a mug. Swapping the leaf saves you nothing, because there was nothing to save.
Whole milk instead: a 25 ml splash of whole milk at 63 kcal per 100 ml is 16 calories, so the mug reads about 17 rather than 13. Four calories a mug. It is a rounding error unless you drink six a day, at which point it is 24.
Five mugs a day
Here is the number that actually matters. Five mugs with milk and one sugar is 145 kcal a day and just over 1,000 kcal a week, all of it from a drink most people would swear is free.
Take the sugar out and keep the milk and the same five mugs cost 65 kcal a day, around 455 a week. That is a saving of 560 calories a week from one decision you make once, which is more than most people get from swapping a lunch. Black takes it to 5 kcal a day, but that is a bigger ask for a smaller gain, and it is not the swap worth arguing for.
If the tea comes with a crumpet, the crumpet is a different order of magnitude entirely.
How does tea compare?
| Drink | Per 100 ml | Typical mug | Per serving |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tea, black | ~0 kcal | 250 ml | 1 kcal |
| Tea with milk | ~5 kcal | 250 ml | 13 kcal |
| Coffee, black | ~0 kcal | 250 ml | 1 kcal |
| Latte | 43 kcal | 250 ml | 108 kcal |
| Hot chocolate, made with semi-skimmed | 74 kcal | 250 ml | 185 kcal |
The verdict: for weight loss, tea with milk is the cheapest hot drink in the house by a distance, since one latte costs eight mugs of it and one hot chocolate costs fourteen. For fullness it does nothing at all, so treat tea as the thing that replaces the 108-calorie coffee shop habit rather than as something that earns its place.
Two things people get wrong
"Tea is a free drink." The tea is. The mug usually is not, and at 29 kcal for milk and one sugar, five of them a day quietly outweigh a biscuit.
"Green tea is the lighter option." Green, black and herbal are all infusions at 0 to 1 kcal a mug. The difference between two people's tea intake is never the leaf; it is the milk and the sugar.
Most popular tea 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. Brewed black, every label rounds to almost nothing. The milk is where the calories are, as the whole page keeps saying.
| Product | Calories (per 100 ml) |
|---|---|
| PG Tips Tea (brewed, black) | 1 kcal |
| Twinings Earl Grey (brewed, black) | 1 kcal |
| Tetley Green Tea (brewed) | 1 kcal |
Brand popularity: BodyPal food database. Nutrition: manufacturer labels.
Frequently asked questions
How many calories are in a cup of tea?
About 1 kcal in a 250 ml mug of black tea with nothing added, which is effectively zero. There is no fat and no sugar in the infusion, only a trace of protein at 0.1 g per 100 ml. Add milk and it becomes 13 kcal.
How many calories are in a cup of tea with milk?
A mug of tea with a 25 ml splash of semi-skimmed milk is 13 kcal: 1 from the tea and 12 from the milk. Use whole milk instead and the same splash is 16 kcal, taking the mug to about 17. The milk is doing all of the work.
How many calories are in tea with milk and sugar?
Tea with milk and one sugar is 29 kcal a mug: 1 for the tea, 12 for a 25 ml splash of semi-skimmed milk, and 16 for a 4 g teaspoon of sugar. The sugar costs more than the milk, which surprises most people who are trying to cut the brew down.
How many calories are in tea with two sugars?
Tea with milk and two sugars is 45 kcal a mug, since each 4 g teaspoon adds 16. Four of those a day is 180 kcal, and 32 of it per mug is the sugar alone. Dropping to one sugar saves 16 kcal a mug without touching the milk.
How many calories are in black tea?
About 1 kcal a mug, or roughly 0 per 100 ml. Black tea is an infusion, so there is no fat, no sugar and only a trace of protein at 0.1 g per 100 ml. It is one of the few things you can drink all day without it registering on a food diary.
How many calories are in green tea?
Between 0 and 1 kcal a mug, the same as black tea and the same as herbal infusions. Switching from black to green saves nothing, because a plain mug of either was already at zero. What changes the number is whether you add milk, at 12 kcal, or sugar, at 16.
Does tea break a fast?
On the calories alone, a mug of black tea is about 1 kcal, which is as close to nothing as a drink gets. A splash of semi-skimmed milk takes it to 13 and one sugar takes it to 29. Those are the numbers; what counts as breaking a fast depends on the rules you are following.
How many calories are in five cups of tea a day?
Five mugs with milk and one sugar come to 145 kcal a day, or just over 1,000 a week. The same five with milk and no sugar are 65 kcal a day, around 455 a week. Black, five mugs is 5 kcal, which is not worth the effort compared with dropping the sugar.
Similar foods
- Diet Coke — about 1 kcal a 330 ml can
- Pepsi Max — about 1 kcal a can
- Cappuccino — 68 kcal per regular cup
- Latte — 68 kcal a mug at home
- Lucozade Sport — 135 kcal a 500 ml bottle
- Can of Coke — 139 kcal a 330 ml can
Count it without the maths
BodyPal logs the mug, the splash and the spoonful from one photo, so the part of your day that hides in five small drinks stops hiding.
