17 Low-Calorie Coffee Drinks Under 100 Calories
All the flavor, none of the guilt. These easy coffee recipes prove you never have to choose between taste and staying on track.
Let’s be real for a second. You love coffee. You also happen to be trying to eat a little better, which means that caramel-drizzled, whipped-cream-crowned monstrosity you order three times a week is quietly working against you. Nobody wants to hear that, but here we are.
The good news? You absolutely do not have to give up on a great coffee drink to keep your calorie count in check. I’ve spent way too much time in my kitchen testing combinations, swapping out ingredients, and discovering that unsweetened almond milk, a pinch of cinnamon, and a shot of espresso can genuinely taste like a treat rather than a consolation prize.
These 17 low-calorie coffee drinks all land under 100 calories, and most are well under that. You’ll find cold drinks, hot drinks, creamy ones, spiced ones, and a few that honestly taste better than whatever the coffee shop charges nine dollars for. Ready to actually enjoy your mornings again?
Overhead flat-lay shot on a weathered white marble surface: a tall glass of iced black coffee with a single cinnamon stick resting across the rim, surrounded by scattered coffee beans, a small white ramekin of raw cacao powder, a sprig of fresh mint, and a minimalist matte black measuring spoon. Soft, diffused natural morning light casting gentle shadows. Warm cream linen napkin folded in the lower left corner. Mood: clean, calm, and cozy kitchen aesthetic. Optimized for vertical Pinterest format (2:3 ratio).
Why Low-Calorie Coffee Drinks Actually Work
Here’s the thing most people miss: a plain cup of brewed coffee has fewer than 5 calories. That’s it. According to Mayo Clinic, a plain cup of brewed coffee has almost no fat and virtually no caloric impact. The problem is never the coffee itself. It’s the extras.
Flavored syrups, heavy cream, whole milk, and mountains of whipped topping are where the calories pile on fast. A standard flavored latte from a coffee chain can easily clock in at 300 to 500 calories before you’ve even eaten breakfast. Swap those additions for smarter ones, and you can keep all the pleasure while cutting most of the caloric damage.
Caffeine also has a modest thermogenic effect, meaning it gently nudges your body into burning slightly more calories at rest, which is why you’ll find coffee mentioned often in conversations around healthy coffee recipes that support your metabolism. That said, no amount of caffeine will cancel out a 500-calorie frappuccino, so the ingredient choices still matter.
Make your own simple syrup with monk fruit or erythritol — same sweetness, zero calories, and it dissolves perfectly into both hot and iced drinks. Store it in a glass bottle in the fridge and it keeps for two weeks.
The 17 Low-Calorie Coffee Drinks (Listed and Explained)
Let’s get into the actual drinks. I’ve organized these by style so you can flip straight to whatever sounds most appealing right now. Calorie counts are approximate and based on the ingredients listed.
Classic Black Coffee
Brewed from good beans, nothing added. The OG low-calorie option. Sounds boring until you try it with a quality single-origin roast, which tastes genuinely different from the stuff in a foil bag at the gas station. Get Full Recipe
~2 caloriesEspresso with a Lemon Twist
A single or double shot of espresso served with a curl of lemon peel. It’s a Roman classic called a “caffe romano” and it sounds bizarre until you try it. The citrus cuts bitterness beautifully. Get Full Recipe
~5 caloriesCold Brew with Unsweetened Almond Milk
Cold brew is naturally smoother and less acidic than hot-brewed coffee, and unsweetened almond milk adds a silky texture for barely any calories. This one’s easy to batch ahead of time. For more cold brew inspiration, the best cold brew variations for summer are worth bookmarking. Get Full Recipe
~15 caloriesCinnamon Spiced Americano
Hot water over espresso, finished with a generous dusting of ground cinnamon. Cinnamon adds warmth and a hint of sweetness without touching the calorie count. It also has known blood sugar-regulating properties, FYI. Get Full Recipe
~10 caloriesIced Oat Milk Coffee
Chilled coffee poured over ice with a splash of unsweetened oat milk. Oat milk adds a naturally sweet, creamy flavor without needing any added sugar. Just keep the pour to about 60ml to stay under 100 calories. Get Full Recipe
~40 caloriesVanilla Cold Foam Iced Coffee
Blend a tiny splash of unsweetened almond milk with two drops of pure vanilla extract until frothy, then float it over black iced coffee. Looks fancy, costs nothing, tastes like a treat. Get Full Recipe
~20 caloriesCoconut Milk Iced Latte
Light coconut milk from a carton (not a can) has far fewer calories than full-fat versions. Shake it with espresso over ice and you get a tropical creaminess that genuinely surprises people. Get Full Recipe
~45 caloriesCardamom Coffee
Ground cardamom stirred into hot black coffee transforms it completely. It’s warming, slightly floral, and the aroma alone is worth it. Popular across the Middle East for centuries, and underrated everywhere else. Get Full Recipe
~5 caloriesSugar-Free Hazelnut Iced Coffee
Use a sugar-free hazelnut syrup (the ones sweetened with stevia or monk fruit work great) over iced coffee with a small pour of unsweetened almond milk. Feels indulgent, genuinely is not. Get Full Recipe
~25 caloriesMocha Protein Coffee
Add a teaspoon of raw cacao powder and a scoop of unflavored or chocolate collagen peptides to black coffee. You get a mocha vibe with actual nutritional value. For more like this, check out the high-protein coffee recipes roundup. Get Full Recipe
~60-80 caloriesTurmeric Coffee (Golden Latte Style)
A pinch of turmeric, cinnamon, and black pepper stirred into hot coffee with a splash of unsweetened almond milk. Anti-inflammatory, warming, and genuinely different from your usual cup. Get Full Recipe
~20 caloriesPeppermint Black Iced Coffee
Two drops of pure peppermint extract added to chilled black coffee over ice. It sounds like toothpaste until you try it — then it tastes like an iced mint mocha minus the 400 calories. Get Full Recipe
~3 caloriesNitro-Style Cold Brew at Home
Pour cold brew into a whipped cream dispenser with a nitrogen charger for a creamy, cascading pour that mimics a nitro coffee. No milk needed — the nitrogen does the texture work. Get Full Recipe
~5 caloriesIced Coffee with Collagen and Cinnamon
Cold brew, a scoop of unflavored collagen, a pinch of cinnamon, and a few drops of liquid stevia. It’s smooth, slightly sweet, and keeps you fuller longer than plain black coffee would. Get Full Recipe
~40-70 caloriesVietnamese-Inspired Iced Coffee (Lightened)
Strong dark roast coffee over ice with a small pour of unsweetened condensed coconut milk. It captures the essence of ca phe sua da without the full-sugar condensed milk situation. Get Full Recipe
~55 caloriesWhipped Dalgona Coffee (Low-Cal Version)
Whip instant coffee, a zero-calorie sweetener, and hot water into a foam, then spoon it over unsweetened oat or almond milk over ice. The standard version uses sugar — this swap keeps it light without losing the drama. Get Full Recipe
~30-50 caloriesHot Cacao Coffee
Brewed coffee with a half teaspoon of raw cacao powder and a pinch of sea salt. No sugar needed — the salt enhances the natural sweetness of both the coffee and the cacao. Weirdly good. Get Full Recipe
~12 calories
The Ingredient Swaps That Actually Make a Difference
Getting a coffee drink under 100 calories is mostly a game of smart substitutions. You don’t have to change what you love about your drink — you just tweak the parts that quietly sabotage you.
Milk Alternatives Worth Knowing
Not all plant milks are equal in the calorie department. Unsweetened almond milk typically has around 10 to 30 calories per cup, while oat milk runs about 90 to 120 calories per cup depending on the brand. For these recipes, unsweetened almond or cashew milk gives you the most flexibility, especially if you’re portioning a small splash.
Coconut milk from a carton (the kind next to the oat and almond milks, not the canned stuff) is another solid option. It’s creamier than almond milk but still lands far below whole milk in calories. If you want to explore this angle, the best non-dairy coffee recipes using almond, oat, and coconut milk are a great place to experiment.
Sweeteners That Don’t Blow Your Budget
Zero-calorie liquid sweeteners like stevia, monk fruit drops, and erythritol syrup all dissolve better than granulated sweeteners in cold drinks, which is a huge practical win. IMO, monk fruit is the cleanest-tasting of the bunch — it doesn’t have the slight aftertaste that pure stevia can carry in larger amounts.
You can also lean on spices for sweetness perception. Cinnamon, vanilla extract (not vanilla syrup), and cardamom all trigger a sweetness response without adding actual sugar. Your brain is surprisingly easy to fool.
Freeze leftover black coffee in ice cube trays. Use these coffee ice cubes in your iced drinks so they never get watered down — a small change that makes every iced coffee noticeably better.
Coffee Tools That Make These Drinks Way Easier
You don’t need a full barista setup. But a few well-chosen tools genuinely change the quality of what you make at home — and help you stay consistent on the low-calorie front because you’re not guessing at measurements.
Handheld Milk Frother
This is how you make cold foam, whip oat milk, or blend cacao into coffee without a blender. I use a battery-powered frother like this one multiple times a day — it’s one of those low-effort, high-reward kitchen buys.
Cold Brew Mason Jar System
A wide-mouth mason jar with a stainless mesh cold brew filter insert makes batching cold brew painless. Fill it Sunday night, refrigerate overnight, and you have coffee for the whole week without a single measuring mishap.
Kitchen Scale for Syrups
Measuring syrups and milk by weight rather than eye-balling is the actual secret to hitting that sub-100-calorie target consistently. A small digital kitchen scale removes all the guesswork.
Low-Calorie Coffee Drink Guide
The complete coffee drinks under 100 calories collection on Plateful Life has printable calorie breakdowns and substitution charts. Save it for reference.
Coffee Syrup Recipe Library
Making your own sugar-free syrups is the single biggest calorie-saving move you can make. The 12 creative coffee syrup recipes collection walks you through vanilla, hazelnut, caramel, and more — all zero-sugar versions.
3-Ingredient Coffee Drinks
When you want something fast with minimal prep, the 20 quick coffee drinks with 3 ingredients or less is the list to have saved on your phone for morning decision fatigue.
How to Order Low-Calorie Coffee at a Cafe
Because let’s be honest — you’re not always going to be making coffee at home, and it’s useful to know how to navigate a menu without derailing yourself. The good news is that most coffee shops will accommodate modifications if you just ask clearly.
The simplest order is an Americano or cold brew with a splash of unsweetened almond milk. Most coffee shops stock it. If they offer sugar-free syrups, a single pump of vanilla or hazelnut adds flavor without adding more than 5 calories. Research on how many calories are in coffee drinks from Healthline confirms that the big calorie culprits are almost always milk type, syrup quantity, and any cream-based additions.
Worth knowing: asking for “half the pumps” of any syrup cuts the sugar and calories significantly without completely removing the flavor. Dropping from four pumps to two pumps on a flavored latte can save you 80 calories right there. Not bad for a two-second ask.
- Ask for unsweetened plant milk instead of regular milk or 2%
- Request sugar-free syrup — most shops have vanilla and hazelnut at minimum
- Skip the whipped cream (that’s an easy 80-100 calories right there)
- Order a smaller size — a tall instead of grande means less milk and less syrup
- Ask for “light ice” if you want more coffee and less watered-down drink
I used to add three pumps of vanilla and a splash of cream to every coffee. Switched to unsweetened almond milk and a single pump of sugar-free vanilla, and honestly it took about four days to stop noticing. Now the old version tastes too sweet. These recipes helped me cut about 400 calories a day without feeling like I was on a diet.
— Maria T., Plateful Life community member
Making These Drinks Part of Your Routine
The easiest way to make low-calorie coffee drinks stick is to set up your kitchen so that the right ingredients are already there and easy to grab. Keep a jar of cold brew in the fridge. Stock your freezer with coffee ice cubes. Have your zero-calorie sweetener, a bag of cinnamon, and a carton of unsweetened almond milk ready to go. You want the low-calorie version to be the path of least resistance.
Batch prepping works particularly well for cold drinks. Make a big batch of cold brew every five to six days, and you have a ready-to-pour base for most of the iced recipes above. Pair that with a quick coffee meal prep routine for busy weekdays and mornings genuinely get faster.
For people who want variety, try choosing two or three recipes from this list and rotating them across the week. Having a few go-to options stops you from defaulting to convenience when you’re tired and short on time — which is usually when the 500-calorie impulse buy happens.
Use a small glass bottle with a pour spout for your homemade sugar-free syrups. Store it right next to the coffee maker. The easier it is to grab, the more likely you’ll use it instead of reaching for something else.
The cold foam iced coffee recipe was the one that got me. I thought there was no way something that light could actually satisfy my afternoon coffee craving. I was wrong. I’ve made it every single afternoon for three months. I even convinced my partner to switch over.
— James P., newsletter subscriber
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the lowest-calorie coffee drink you can make at home?
Plain black coffee brewed from grounds or an espresso shot comes in at around 2 to 5 calories and is the lowest-calorie option available. You can also make a flavored black coffee by adding ground cinnamon, cardamom, or a drop of pure vanilla extract, which adds negligible calories and changes the flavor profile dramatically.
Can I use oat milk in low-calorie coffee recipes?
Yes, but portion matters. Unsweetened oat milk has roughly 90 to 120 calories per cup, which is much higher than unsweetened almond milk at around 15 to 30 calories per cup. For recipes targeting under 100 calories total, stick to a 2 to 3 tablespoon splash of oat milk rather than a full pour. It still adds creaminess without pushing you over.
Are sugar-free coffee syrups actually healthy?
Sugar-free syrups sweetened with stevia, monk fruit, or erythritol are generally well-tolerated and add zero or near-zero calories. Some people find certain sweeteners cause digestive sensitivity in large amounts, particularly erythritol. Monk fruit and pure stevia drops tend to be the gentlest options. Used in small quantities for coffee flavoring, they work well for most people.
Does cold brew have fewer calories than regular coffee?
Cold brew itself has about the same calorie count as hot-brewed coffee — virtually zero when consumed black. The reason cold brew often gets recommended for low-calorie approaches is that its naturally lower acidity and smoother, slightly sweeter flavor makes it easier to drink without added sweeteners or milk, which is where most calories enter the picture.
How do I make iced coffee without it getting watered down?
The simplest fix is using coffee ice cubes instead of regular ice. Brew extra coffee, let it cool, pour it into ice cube trays, and freeze. When you add these cubes to your iced coffee, the drink stays cold and concentrated rather than diluting as the ice melts. It’s a small change that makes a noticeable difference in every sip.
The Bottom Line
Low-calorie coffee drinks are not a compromise. Most of the recipes on this list taste better than their sugar-laden counterparts once your palate adjusts — and that adjustment takes less time than you’d expect. The key is swapping one ingredient at a time rather than overhauling everything at once.
Start with whichever recipe on this list sounds like the smallest stretch from what you already drink. Make it for a week. Then try another. Before long, the 400-calorie latte will stop looking appealing simply because your taste expectations have shifted.
Your coffee habit doesn’t have to fight against your goals. With the right building blocks, it can actually support them. Pick one drink from the list above and start tomorrow morning. That’s really all it takes.
