Coffee Bean Nutrition Facts: What To Know About The Mighty Bean

There’s nothing like drinking a piping hot espresso or an iced coffee to add a little kick to your routine. While studies show the health benefits of coffee, it’s no wonder that the drink is so popular — plus it tastes and smells incredible. But is coffee really good for you? To answer that question, it’s helpful to know basic coffee bean nutrition facts.

Coffee beans themselves contain essential vitamins and nutrients. However, the type of drink you choose and any additives in it can quickly take this healthy concoction from a healthy beverage to a dessert treat. Looking for nutritional information on coffee beans? We’ve got you covered. Here, you’ll learn basic coffee bean nutrition facts and how the type of drink and serving size can affect the nutritional value.

Coffee Bean Nutrition Facts 

When it comes to assessing basic coffee bean nutrition, you’ll need to understand two simple concepts: serving sizes and recommended daily values. As you likely know, serving sizes are important when reading nutrition labels. They tell you how much sugar, total carbohydrates, and fat are in each serving size. If you double that serving size, you also double the amounts of those ingredients.

Recommended daily values are set by the FDA and typically used as guidelines for the consumption of various vitamins and minerals. The FDA requires nutrition labels to list daily values for various vitamins, minerals, and nutrients — but not all of them.

Fat, Carbs, and Sugar

In general, the typical serving size for coffee beans in a standard cup of coffee is 18 grams. This amount can vary dramatically depending on the type of coffee you’re drinking — an espresso, double espresso, or milk-based beverage. A standard cup of coffee has around 90 calories and zero cholesterol. You’ll also consume around 4.5 grams of total fat — 2.9 grams of saturated fats and 0 grams of trans fat. When it comes to carbs, coffee beans typically contain 11 grams of total carbohydrates and 1 gram of dietary fiber. 

The amount of sugar in coffee beans depends on how it is grown but is generally around 8-10 grams per serving. The sugar in coffee is naturally occurring and largely in the form of sucrose. If you’re looking for low-sugar options, choose washed coffee beans as they tend to have less sugar.

Vitamins and Minerals

In addition to the above, coffee beans also contain vitamins and minerals. With each cup of coffee, you’ll get around 2% of your daily recommended percent of calcium and potassium and 6% of iron. Coffee beans also contain vitamin a — which is good for vision and the immune system — and vitamin d, which helps support strong bones. Coffee also contains high amounts of niacin — in fact, it’s one of the foods with the highest concentrations of niacin. You’ll find 1.5mg of niacin in 40 grams of coffee. Niacin is a b vitamin that plays an essential role in the nervous system, digestion, and controlling cholesterol.

Caffeine

As a rule of thumb, coffee beans contain 40mg of caffeine per every 100 grams. That’s more than twice the amount of caffeine in black tea and significantly higher than the caffeine content of green tea. The amount of caffeine can change depending on the way the beans are processed and grown. Espresso beans and cold brew coffee typically have more caffeine than a standard cup of coffee due to the type of beans and the way the coffee is extracted with water.

Here’s a quick breakdown of coffee bean nutrition facts:

Why Serving Size and Drink Type Matter

These nutrition facts are just general guidelines. The amounts can vary depending on the type of coffee that’s brewed in addition to how and where the beans are grown. Italian dark roasts tend to be richer and stronger than American roasts, altering the coffee bean nutrition facts. In addition, serving sizes matter. While a cup of espresso in Italy is simply that — a small cup with one shot of espresso — in America, you can order drinks with three or four shots of espresso, thus radically changing the nutrition facts based on the serving size.

Drink type also matters. These nutrition facts are for coffee beans specifically. If you consume coffee drinks with milk added – like a cafe latte, flat white, or a cappuccino — the nutrition facts will change. That goes for all types of milk including soy milk, almond milk, and oat milk.

Many coffee beverages in America feature additives to sweeten the drink. Thanks to companies like Starbucks and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, inventions including matcha lattes, caramel americanos, and mocha lattes have changed the way we look at coffee. Things like hazelnut lattes, vanilla lattes, dark chocolate lattes, and caramel lattes all have sweeteners that increase the sugar content. These drinks may also have other nutrients like vitamin c depending on the ingredients. 

In general, these beverages contain far higher amounts of fat and sugar per serving compared to plain old coffee beans. Keep this in mind before adding vanilla powder, white chocolate powder, and syrups to your coffee drinks if you prefer beverages that have little to no sugar.

Drink To Your Heart’s Content

Now that you know the basic coffee bean nutrition facts, you can choose the types of beverages that work best for you. If you’re worried about sugar and fats, stick to a simple cup of coffee whenever possible. If you prefer sweeter tasting notes, opt for a drink with sweeteners and syrups like a vanilla ice latte or a caramel ice blended drink. You can also go for something in between by choosing a milk-based espresso drink like a latte or cappuccino.

Looking for more ways to learn about coffee? Continue browsing our blog at Cup & Bean. There, you’ll find everything from the benefits of coffee to tips on how to brew the perfect cup and understand the growing process of the different types of coffee.