Tea — unsweetened: how many calories?

Where do the calories come from?

• Protein 0%
• Carbs 100%
• Fat 0%

These percentages come from calories, not from grams: a gram of protein or carbohydrate counts as 4 calories, a gram of fat as 9. Alcohol is left out of the sum, fibre is counted with the carbohydrate, and the total always lands on one hundred.

What do these numbers mean on the plate?

Tea — unsweetened carries 0.0 calories per gram: it takes 10,000 grams to reach 100 calories. In this band the portion is hard to misjudge by eye, because piling up calories means genuinely filling the plate.

A typical portion is 250 g. Because tables are written per 100 grams, counting the portion as 100 grams too is a common mistake; for Tea — unsweetened that means understating the calories by 60%.

One portion every day adds up to 913 calories a year — roughly a 0.1 kg difference. This is a linear estimate and an upper bound: as weight changes, daily needs change with it. Build your own timeline

Calories in a drink go down without chewing, so they turn into little sense of fullness; the same calories from solid food would have covered part of a meal.

Household measure equivalents

A cup measures 200 millilitres, not 200 grams; the grams in the table therefore come from the food's own bulk density rather than from volume. Packing the cup down or chopping more finely shifts the figure by 10-20%. Convert your own measure

How much of the daily reference intake?

The reference values are the figures EU Regulation 1169/2011 gives for an average adult — the %RI column on labels rests on the same numbers. They are not a personal target; the fibre row is not in the regulation, the 25 grams there is EFSA's adequate intake for adults. Work out your own calorie needs

Where does it sit within its group?

It is number 3 of the 13 foods in the Drinks group by calories per 100 grams. The group averages 32 kcal; Tea — unsweetened is 97% below that average.

Lighter options at the same 250 grams

The “good swap” mark only appears when an option lowers the calories without also lowering protein and fibre per 100 calories. Unmarked rows save calories but give up nutrient density. Try it with your own portion

How long does it take to burn one portion (250 g)?

• Walking — brisk (5.6 km/h)1 min
• Running — 8 km/h (7:30 min/km)0 min
• Cycling — 16-19 km/h0 min

These minutes are the NET burn for a 70 kg body: the resting calories that would have been spent sitting on the sofa anyway are already taken out of the total. A heavier body gets the same work done in less time. Calculate with your own weight

Which claims could its label carry?

EU Regulation 1924/2006 ties every label claim to a numeric threshold. Tea — unsweetened meets 2 of them:

• Energy-free100 ml → 1 kcal · threshold: at most 4 kcal
• Fat-free100 ml → 0.0 g fat · threshold: at most 0.5 g

The thresholds apply to a product's OWN analysis; the values here come from average composition tables. So this list is not an authorisation, only an estimate of which side of the threshold a product sits on. For drinks the energy and fat thresholds are per 100 millilitres and lower. Interpret your own label