Plain brewed tea is one of the lightest drinks you can choose: a standard 8-ounce cup of black or green tea contains only about 2 calories and virtually no macronutrients. However, most people don't drink it plain. A splash of milk, a spoonful of honey, or a fresh lemon wedge can change the calorie, carbohydrate, and sugar content significantly.
This tea nutrition calculator helps you see exactly what is going into your mug. Choose your tea type, the amount you brewed, and any add-ins you like — from whole milk to oat milk, white sugar to stevia — and it will estimate calories, carbs, sugar, protein, fat, and caffeine per serving.
Whether you are tracking macros, counting calories, watching added sugar, or just curious about your daily tea habit, this calculator gives you a quick, practical snapshot of a drink you may consume several times a day.
🫖 Tea Serve
🥛 Add-ins
How to Use This Tool
Start by selecting the tea base that matches what you brewed. The calculator assumes plain steeped tea — not instant tea mixes, chai concentrates, or bottled sweetened teas. Next, enter the total brewed volume in cups, fluid ounces, or milliliters; the preset buttons (1 cup, 2 cups, 12 oz, 500 ml) can save you a step.
Then add any milk, sweetener, and lemon juice you plan to stir in. The milk options include whole, skim, 2%, unsweetened almond, oat, and soy; the sweetener options are white sugar, honey, agave nectar, and stevia. Leave an amount at 0 if you are not using it. Press Calculate Nutrition to see totals for the whole serving, and use Reset to go back to a plain cup.
How the Nutrition Values Are Estimated
The estimates are built from average nutrition data published by the USDA FoodData Central for brewed black, green, white, oolong, and herbal teas, plus typical values for milk, sweeteners, and lemon juice. For each ingredient, the calculator multiplies the nutrient density per standard unit (cup of tea, tablespoon of milk, teaspoon of sweetener, teaspoon of lemon juice) by the amount you entered.
For example, a brewed black tea has roughly 2 kcal and 0.4 g of carbohydrates per 240 ml cup, along with about 47 mg of caffeine. Green tea is similar in calories but contains less caffeine (about 28 mg per cup), while white and oolong fall in between. Herbal infusions such as chamomile, peppermint, or rooibos contain no caffeine and only trace calories. If you want to explore the underlying data, the USDA FoodData Central is the primary reference; caffeine ranges for tea are also summarized by the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements.
Worked Example: 12 oz Black Tea with Whole Milk and Sugar
Let's work through a common order: a 12-fluid-ounce mug of black tea with 1 tablespoon of whole milk and 1 teaspoon of white sugar.
- Tea base: 12 fl oz equals 1.5 cups. Black tea at 2 kcal and 0.4 g carbs per cup gives about 3 kcal and 0.6 g carbs, plus roughly 70 mg caffeine.
- Whole milk: 1 tablespoon adds 9 kcal, 0.7 g carbs, 0.5 g protein, and 0.5 g fat.
- White sugar: 1 teaspoon adds 16 kcal and 4.2 g sugar.
- Totals: about 28 kcal, 5.5 g total carbs, ~4.9 g sugar, 0.5 g protein, 0.5 g fat, and ~70 mg caffeine.
If you swapped the whole milk for unsweetened almond milk, you would save about 7 kcal and 0.6 g fat. If you swapped the sugar for stevia, you would cut 4.2 g of added sugar while keeping a similar sweet taste.
Reference Table: Plain Brewed Tea per 8 oz Cup
Use this table as a quick baseline before adding anything. Values are rounded averages for steeped tea without milk or sweetener.
| Tea Type | Calories | Carbs (g) | Protein (g) | Caffeine (mg) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black tea | 2 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 47 |
| Green tea | 2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 28 |
| White tea | 2 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 15 |
| Oolong tea | 2 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 37 |
| Herbal tea | 1 | 0.2 | 0 | 0 |
Factors That Affect Accuracy
The biggest source of variation is not the tea leaf — it is everything you add. Milk alternatives differ a lot by brand: unsweetened almond milk can be as low as 30 kcal per cup, while oat milk often contains 100–120 kcal per cup due to its carbohydrate content. Similarly, honey is slightly higher in calories per teaspoon than white sugar, and agave delivers a similar calorie load with a lower glycemic index. Stevia packets labeled zero calorie are essentially calorie-free, but some stevia blends contain dextrose or maltodextrin and may add 1–2 kcal per packet.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does plain tea have carbohydrates? Yes, a tiny amount. Steeped tea leaves release a small number of dissolved solids — mostly polyphenols and trace minerals — which contribute about 0.2–0.4 g of carbs per cup. This is nutritionally negligible for most people, but if you follow a very strict ketogenic or low-carb plan, it is still small enough to ignore.
Is herbal tea always caffeine-free? Not automatically. True herbal infusions made from chamomile, peppermint, rooibos, or other non-Camellia sinensis plants are naturally caffeine-free. However, some herbal blends include black or green tea leaves, so read the label if caffeine is a concern.
How does this compare to coffee? An 8 oz cup of brewed coffee contains about 95 mg of caffeine, roughly double a black tea cup, and almost no calories on its own. If you also drink coffee with milk or syrup, you can estimate that with our coffee calorie calculator and compare your daily caffeinated drink total.
Why does the calculator show decimals? Nutritional databases report averages to fractions of a gram. Over multiple cups of tea per day, these small amounts add up, so we show one decimal place to make tracking more accurate. Use the totals as a planning guide rather than an exact lab result.