How Much Sugar Is in Your Café Drink? Karak, Spanish Latte and 8 More, Compared
Key finding: a cafeteria karak or a large Spanish latte each carries about 20 g of free sugar, close to 5 teaspoons. That is around 80% of the 25 g a day the WHO suggests as an ideal limit. Two or three sweet drinks in one day can pass the 50 g upper limit before you eat anything sweet.
Coffee and tea on their own have almost no sugar. The sugar in a café drink comes from what goes into the cup: syrup, sweetened condensed milk, or spoonfuls of sugar in a big pot of karak. We estimated the free sugar in ten drinks that are popular across Oman, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, using standard recipes and published nutrition data, and converted it into teaspoons so it is easy to picture.
The Numbers: Sugar in 10 Popular Café Drinks
| Drink | Serving and recipe assumed | Free sugar | Teaspoons | Share of 25 g ideal limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arabic coffee (gahwa), 3 finjans | Plain, no sugar | 0 g | 0 | 0% |
| Black coffee / Americano | No sugar added | 0 g | 0 | 0% |
| Cappuccino, unsweetened | 180 ml cup | 0 g | 0 | 0% |
| Iced latte, unsweetened | 350 ml, 200 ml milk | 0 g | 0 | 0% |
| 3-in-1 coffee sachet | One sachet | 8.4 g | 2 | 34% |
| Mocha | 2 tbsp chocolate syrup | 18.6 g | 4.4 | 74% |
| Caramel latte | 30 ml (2 tbsp) caramel syrup | 19 g | 4.5 | 76% |
| Karak tea, cafeteria cup | About 100 g sugar per litre of tea | 20 g | 4.8 | 80% |
| Spanish latte, large | 2 tbsp sweetened condensed milk | 20.7 g | 4.9 | 83% |
| Cola, 330 ml can | Regular, not diet | 35 g | 8.3 | 140% |
Free sugar means sugar added to the drink (and sugar in syrups). It does not include the natural lactose in milk: an unsweetened cappuccino has about 6 g and an unsweetened iced latte about 10 g from the milk alone, which the WHO does not count towards the limit.
What a Typical Gulf Café Day Adds Up To
Picture a common day: a cup of karak on the way to work (about 20 g), a large Spanish latte in the afternoon (about 21 g) and a can of cola with lunch (35 g). That is about 76 g of free sugar, or 18 teaspoons, from drinks alone. It is three times the WHO’s ideal 25 g and one and a half times its 50 g upper limit.
Try your own day with our free sugar in drinks calculator.
Does the Sugar in Dates and Milk Count?
Arabic coffee is traditionally served without sugar, but it comes with dates. A Medjool date (about 24 g) has roughly 16 g of natural sugar, according to USDA data. The WHO does not count the sugar in whole fruit or in milk as free sugar, because it comes with fibre, protein and other nutrients. Dates are still energy-dense, so two or three with every round of gahwa adds up.
How to Cut the Sugar Without Giving Up Your Order
- Ask for half sweet or one pump of syrup instead of two.
- In a Spanish latte, one tablespoon of condensed milk instead of two cuts the free sugar by half.
- Order karak with less sugar, or make it at home and sweeten each cup yourself.
- Choose unsweetened lattes and cappuccinos and add a stevia Reb-M sachet if you want sweetness.
- Size down: a small cup has roughly half the sugar of a large one made with the same recipe.
Methodology
- These are estimates for typical recipes, not lab tests. Real drinks vary by café, cup size and how they are made.
- Sugar values come from USDA FoodData Central: sweetened condensed milk 54.4 g sugar per 100 g (one tablespoon about 19 g), chocolate syrup 49.6 g per 100 g (two tablespoons about 37.5 g).
- Caramel syrup: 19 g sugar per 2 tablespoons (30 ml), from the Torani Classic Caramel label.
- Karak: Gulf News reported cafeterias using about 100 g of sugar per litre of tea, which a dietitian estimated at about 20 g (4 teaspoons) per cup.
- 3-in-1 sachet: 8.4 g sugar per sachet from Nescafé UK product information. Cola: 35 g per 330 ml can from Coca-Cola.
- One level teaspoon of sugar is taken as 4.2 g (USDA). The WHO recommends keeping free sugars below 10% of daily energy (about 50 g) and ideally below 5% (about 25 g).
Planning the Ramadan table? See how much sugar is in Ramadan drinks such as Vimto, jallab and qamar al-din.
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Journalists, bloggers and teachers are welcome to use the chart and figures on this page. Please credit Lucarise and link to this page. For the chart in Arabic, a high-resolution file or a question about the data, email info@lucarise.com.
References
- WHO: guideline on sugars intake (2015)
- USDA FoodData Central (sweetened condensed milk 171275, chocolate syrup 174117, Medjool dates 168191, whole milk 171265)
- Gulf News: The bitter truth about your sweet karak tea in UAE
- Nescafé UK: 3 in 1
- Coca-Cola: sugar in Coca-Cola Original Taste
- Torani Classic Caramel Syrup, product nutrition label (2 tbsp / 30 ml: 19 g sugar)
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