Units and calories in spirits

All spirits – including vodka, gin, rum, whisky, brandy – are strong alcoholic drinks.

To keep health risks from alcohol low, if you choose to drink spirits, it’s important to stick to the UK Chief Medical Officers' low risk drinking guidelines. That means no more than 14 units a week, spread over three or more days, with several drink-free days - and no bingeing.

Regularly drinking more than the low risk drinking guidelines increases your risk of serious health conditions including heart problems, high blood pressure and poor mental health.

Drinking alcohol also causes at least seven types of cancer, including breast, bowel, mouth and throat cancers.¹  The risk of developing these types of cancer starts to increase even at low levels of drinking - so the less you drink, the more you reduce your risk.

How much alcohol is in spirits?

Checking a spirit’s ABV (alcohol by volume) tells you what percentage of the drink is made up of alcohol. The higher the percentage, the more alcohol there is - for example, half of a 50% ABV whisky is pure alcohol.

Standard spirits are often around 35-40% ABV, but some can be much stronger. It’s important to check - you’ll find the ABV on the side of the bottle, or ask at the bar.

Spirits need to meet a minimum alcoholic strength to be allowed to use certain names.^2,3 Brandy must be at least 36% ABV; gin, rum and vodka are a minimum of 37.5% ABV; and all whisky/ whiskey is at least 40% ABV.

A good way to keep track of how much you’re drinking is to know how many units of alcohol are in your drink. One unit of alcohol is 10ml (ten millilitres) of pure alcohol – and the number of units you are drinking depends on the drink’s size and strength.

Pubs and bars used to commonly serve spirits in 25ml measures - that’s about one unit of alcohol per measure. But these days many pubs and bars have switched to 35ml or 50ml measures – meaning you might be having a lot more alcohol without realising.

If you drink a spirit as part of a mixed drink or a cocktail, there can be several measures of spirit included – even if it doesn’t taste particularly strong. And if you drink at home, a good way to avoid accidentally pouring too much and limit how many units of alcohol you have is by using a measuring cup.

Buy a unit measuring cup from the Drinkaware shop

How many calories are in spirits?

Alcohol contains around seven calories a gram, almost as many as pure fat. This means that because spirits contain lots of alcohol, they’re high in calories too.

A 25ml measure of standard spirits will contain around 50-60 calories, depending on the type of drink. But if you’re drinking at home and pouring ‘by eye’, it’s easy to accidentally pour a larger measure, which will mean more calories (and more alcohol).

And if you’re having a mixed drink, like a gin and tonic, or a cocktail, the calories in your drink don’t just come from the alcohol. A double gin and tonic can contain around 150 calories.⁴

There are now many alcohol-free alternatives available to standard spirits. These can be a good choice if you’re counting calories as part of your healthy diet, or a weight loss programme, because they are legally required to show nutrition information (unlike standard spirits).^5,6

Read this article to find out more about cutting your drinking and calories with alcohol-free.

Download the free MyDrinkaware app to track calories and units