Teh tarik calories come to about 190 to 230 kcal a cup. The Ministry of Health's calorie list gives 229 kcal for a 363 g cup. A 2026 laboratory test of drinks from Malaysian food outlets found 9.91 g of sugar per 100 ml: about 30 g, six teaspoons, in a 300 ml cup, 119 kcal from sugar alone.
TL;DR
- A teh tarik is about 189 kcal for 300 ml and 229 kcal for the Ministry of Health's 363 g cup; sugar is about 63% of it.
- Universiti Putra Malaysia's 2026 lab test, with the Ministry of Health and WHO, measured 360 drinks from outlets in six zones.
- Stall staff estimated their teh tarik at 3.04 g of sugar per 100 ml; the lab found 9.91, more than three times as much.
- Teh O is 20 kcal a cup on the Ministry's list, but the sugar the lab measured puts the same 200 ml at about 54 kcal.
- On the Ministry's own rows, one tablespoon of condensed milk is 65 kcal and one teaspoon of sugar is 20.
How many calories are in a teh tarik?
About 190 to 230 kcal, depending on the cup. Teh tarik is black tea with condensed milk, "pulled" between two jugs for its foam. A kcal is a kilocalorie, the unit labels call a calorie.
The Ministry of Health's calorie list, a Nutrition Division PDF (Bank Kalori, the October 2025 upload, read 25 October 2026), prints teh tarik at 229 kcal for one cup of 363 g, a figure it takes from Singapore food composition data. Its teh susu row, tea with two tablespoons of condensed milk, is 136 kcal for 200 ml.
- Teh tarik, 363 g cup: 229 kcal, which is about 63 kcal per 100 g.
- The same drink at 300 ml, taking a millilitre as a gram: about 189 kcal.
MyFCD, Malaysia's food composition database, has no teh tarik row: its 1997 tables hold no tea or coffee with milk at all. That is why the Malaysian food calorie calculator on this site covers food and not drinks.
How much sugar is in teh tarik?
About 30 g in a 300 ml cup, roughly six teaspoons, measured in a laboratory in 2026 in drinks as Malaysian outlets actually serve them.
Universiti Putra Malaysia's Department of Nutrition (UPM) ran the study for the Ministry of Health, with support from the World Health Organization's office for Malaysia. The findings were presented on 22 September 2026 and published by WHO as a seminar booklet (the UPM booklet) and in a WHO story of 2 October 2026.
- What was bought. The ten sugary drinks people said they order most, from six food service operations, in the booklet's words, in each of six zones (North, Central, South, East Coast, Sabah and Labuan, Sarawak): 360 drinks.
- How it was measured. Each drink was frozen, sent to UPM and tested three times by HPLC (high-performance liquid chromatography, a lab method that separates and weighs each sugar) at the Institute for Medical Research.
- Teh tarik. 9.91 g of sugar per 100 ml, standard deviation 4.11: one deviation either side is about 17 g to 42 g in a 300 ml cup.
The lab counted total sugars, including the milk's lactose. The booklet is a seminar document, not a peer-reviewed paper; I read its figures from the page images.
Before the lab, researchers asked the staff who make the drinks how they make them, and worked out the sugar from their spoons and jugs, at 5 g a teaspoon. For teh tarik that came to 3.04 g per 100 ml, under a third of what the lab measured, and all five drinks estimated came out significantly under. The booklet's explanation: no standard recipes, and every maker's own habits.
For scale only: WHO's 2015 guideline puts its conditional limit for free sugars at roughly 25 grams, six teaspoons, a day. It is not the same measure: WHO does not count milk's lactose as a free sugar.
Which mamak drink has the most sugar?
Kopi susu, coffee with condensed milk: about 34 g of sugar in 300 ml. Teh tarik is second. All ten drinks from the 2026 test, turned into a 300 ml cup and calories by a short script:
| Drink | Sugar per 100 ml | Sugar in 300 ml | Teaspoons | kcal from sugar |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kopi susu (coffee, condensed milk) | 11.37 g | 34.1 g | 6.8 | 136 |
| Teh tarik (tea, condensed milk) | 9.91 g | 29.7 g | 5.9 | 119 |
| Orange juice | 8.97 g | 26.9 g | 5.4 | 108 |
| Milo (malted chocolate, condensed milk) | 8.67 g | 26.0 g | 5.2 | 104 |
| Air sirap (rose syrup) | 8.59 g | 25.8 g | 5.2 | 103 |
| Kopi O (coffee, sugar) | 7.79 g | 23.4 g | 4.7 | 93 |
| Teh O (tea, sugar) | 6.75 g | 20.3 g | 4.1 | 81 |
| Teh O limau (tea, sugar, lime) | 6.50 g | 19.5 g | 3.9 | 78 |
| Air limau (lime drink) | 5.25 g | 15.8 g | 3.2 | 63 |
| Cafe latte | 4.35 g | 13.1 g | 2.6 | 52 |
The study took 300 ml as a common serving. Of 2,092 adults surveyed, most named teh O (15.6%), then teh tarik (11.3%) and kopi O (8.8%).
For a Milo ais, the study's "malted chocolate drink with condensed milk" carries 26 g of sugar in 300 ml. The Ministry's list prints two tablespoons of Milo powder, 20 g, at 73 kcal before any milk or sugar, and a small iced Milo from McDonald's, 275 ml, at 206 kcal.
Why do teh tarik calorie counts online range from 120 to 515?
Because they describe different cups. On page one of Google Malaysia on 25 October 2026, answers for one teh tarik ran from 120 to 250 kcal in English and Malay, and 367 to 515 in Chinese.
- The cup. A 200 ml cup and the Ministry's 363 g cup are nearly two to one.
- Per cup or per 100. Figures of 49 to 65 kcal are per 100 g or 100 ml, not per glass.
- The condensed milk. Each tablespoon is 65 kcal on the Ministry's list (a 19 g spoon). A stall that pours three instead of two adds 65 kcal.
- The 515. It appears in Chinese-language milk tea rankings published in Malaysia in 2020 and 2024, with no source given, and I could not trace one. At the Ministry's 63 kcal per 100 g it would take about 820 g of teh tarik.
Where do the Ministry's list and the lab disagree?
On the drinks sweetened with sugar alone. The list describes a recipe; the lab measured what outlets serve.
- Teh O. The list prints 20 kcal for a 200 ml cup and does not say how much sugar. The lab's sugar in 200 ml is 13.5 g, which is 54 kcal on its own: 2.7 times the list's figure for the whole drink.
- Kopi O. The list's row is "with one teaspoon of sugar", 37 kcal for 200 ml. The lab found 15.6 g of sugar in 200 ml, about three teaspoons, 62 kcal from the sugar.
- The milk drinks sit closer. Teh susu is 136 kcal for 200 ml on the list, and the lab's sugar at that size is 79 kcal; the rest is the milk's fat and protein.
- Two rows read exactly 100. Kopi with condensed milk and Milo with condensed milk are both 100 kcal for 200 ml. The list's own Milo powder row is 73 kcal for two tablespoons, which leaves 27 kcal for the condensed milk, under half a tablespoon.
None of this makes the list wrong about the recipe it describes; a stall's teh O is simply not that recipe. The study recommends adding these drinks to MyFCD, revised every year.
Does asking for kurang manis or kosong change the number?
Kosong does: it means no sugar, and the tea itself is close to zero (the Ministry's list gives Chinese tea 1 kcal for 250 ml). Kurang manis, less sweet, has no fixed meaning, and no source I found has measured how much less a stall pours.
- One teaspoon of sugar, 5 g: 20 kcal (the list prints 60 kcal for a 15 g tablespoon).
- One tablespoon of condensed milk, 19 g: 65 kcal.
The booklet quotes the campaign line "1 Sudu Teh Dah Cukup" (one teaspoon is enough). Given how far makers' estimates fell from the lab, I would not count on a kurang manis being any particular number.
What does my own log show?
My drink disappears into the meal. Between 21 July and 21 October 2026 I logged breakfast on 36 days, and coffee appears on 18 of them. On 15 of those 18 it shares one line with the eggs and toast; only three times is it a line of its own.
One of those three reads "Nescafe coffee with 3 teaspoons sugar", and I logged it at 50 kcal. At the study's 5 g teaspoon, three teaspoons are 15 g of sugar and 60 kcal, before the coffee and before any milk. My own line came in under the sugar alone, the same way the stall staff's estimates did. I have not logged a single teh tarik in those three months.
The same thing happens on a plate: on nasi lemak it is the sambal that goes unwritten, as how many calories are in nasi lemak shows. A roti canai beside the teh tarik is another 301 kcal for a 95 g piece.
How do I log teh tarik without guessing every time?
Give the drink its own line, choose one figure for your usual cup, and keep using it.
- Its own line. A drink folded into "breakfast" is a drink nobody can count later.
- One figure, kept. For a 300 ml teh tarik, about 190 kcal from the Ministry's row, or 119 as the floor the lab's sugar sets. Either works if you use the same one every time; the best ways to track calories explains why consistency beats precision.
In Habitus Mind, which I built, My Foods saves "teh tarik, 300 ml" once with the calories you choose, and the plus button logs it again in one tap. What it does not do: the Food Library's MyFCD rows hold no tea or coffee with milk, so there is no ticked teh tarik, and the AI quick-log, which reads a typed sentence with an AI model, estimates rather than measures. Nothing in the app tells you what to drink.
Habitus Mind is free to start. My Foods and the ticked MyFCD foods live in its Fitness module; to try it, create a free account.
FAQ
How many calories are in one teh tarik?
About 190 kcal for 300 ml and 229 kcal for the 363 g cup on the Ministry of Health's calorie list. On the 2026 lab result, the sugar alone is about 119 kcal in 300 ml.
How much sugar is in teh tarik?
9.91 g per 100 ml, measured in 2026 in drinks bought across six zones of Malaysia: about 30 g, six teaspoons, in a 300 ml cup. Cups vary widely from stall to stall.
Does teh O have fewer calories than teh tarik?
Yes. In 300 ml the lab found about 20 g of sugar in teh O against 30 in teh tarik, 81 kcal against 119,, and teh O has no milk.
How many calories are in a Milo ais?
The sugar alone is about 104 kcal in 300 ml, from 26 g measured in the 2026 test. The Ministry's list prints a small McDonald's iced Milo, 275 ml, at 206 kcal, and two tablespoons of the powder at 73.
Is kurang manis really less sugar?
It may be, but no source has measured by how much, and makers' own estimates ran well below the lab. Kosong, no sugar, is the order with a known effect: a teh O kosong drops about 20 g of sugar from a 300 ml cup.
