The Lowest Calorie Alcoholic Drinks
The core principle is simple: the fewer non-alcohol calories a drink has, the more of your calorie budget goes toward actual alcohol rather than sugar and filler. Drinks that score well on the C2AR measure are the ones where alcohol does most of the caloric heavy lifting.
The Best Low-Calorie Choices
1. Spirits Neat or with Soda Water (A+)
A 1.5 oz pour of vodka, gin, tequila, or whiskey contains around 95–110 calories — almost entirely from alcohol with no sugar. Add soda water (zero calories) and you have a full drink at that same calorie count. This is the highest C2AR-scoring option available.
What kills the score: switching from soda water to tonic water adds roughly 80 calories of sugar per serving. Regular tonic water is not a "healthy" mixer — it is basically soda.
2. Hard Seltzer (A to A+)
Most hard seltzers clock in at 90–110 calories per 12 oz can. They are brewed to ferment dry (minimal residual sugar), which means almost all the calories come from alcohol. The result is a high C2AR score and a refreshing drink around the same calorie level as a vodka soda — with no bartender required.
Browse hard seltzers in the database →
3. Light Beer (A to B+)
American light lagers like Bud Light, Miller Lite, and Coors Light typically have 95–110 calories per 12 oz. They achieve this by reducing both the ABV (usually around 4.2%) and the residual carbohydrates. The tradeoff is a thinner flavor profile, but the calorie efficiency is hard to beat for a beer.
Browse beers ranked by score →
4. Dry Wine (B+ to A)
Dry white wines — think Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, unoaked Chardonnay — typically contain 110–125 calories per 5 oz glass. Dry reds like Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon run slightly higher at 120–135 calories due to higher ABV. Both score well because dry fermentation leaves very little residual sugar.
Sweet wines (Riesling, Moscato, dessert wines) can hit 165–200+ calories per glass. The sugar content is the difference.
Browse wines ranked by score →
5. Hard Cider (Dry) (B to A)
Dry ciders fermented to completion — similar to dry wine — can score well because most of the apple sugars have been converted to alcohol. Sweet or semi-sweet ciders retain more sugar and score considerably lower. When choosing a cider, dry beats sweet on every calorie metric.
What to Avoid
These categories tend to score poorly on C2AR because sugar calories overwhelm the alcohol calories:
- Cocktails with sweetened mixers — margaritas, mojitos, mai tais, and piña coladas can easily reach 300–500 calories. Most of those calories are sugar, not alcohol.
- Creamy drinks — White Russians, mudslides, and Irish cream drinks add fat calories on top of the sugar and alcohol. These are dessert-level calorie counts.
- Sweet liqueurs — Baileys, Kahlúa, flavored schnapps, and triple sec are high in sugar. As a primary drink they score very low; as a small mixer in a cocktail the damage is proportional to how much is used.
- High-ABV craft beer — A double IPA at 8–10% ABV can hit 300+ calories per can. The extra alcohol means extra calories, and many also have significant residual malt sugars.
- Flavored malt beverages — Four Loko, Twisted Tea, and similar drinks pack a lot of sugar alongside the alcohol. Calorie counts often exceed 300 per can.
Bar Ordering Strategy
If you want something with more flavor:
- Ask for a "skinny" version — most bars will make a margarita with fresh lime juice and no added simple syrup, cutting 100+ calories.
- Choose wine over cocktails when the cocktail menu is heavy on sugary syrups.
- Pick hard seltzer over regular beer when both are available — similar ABV, fewer calories.
- Avoid "house cocktails" and pre-made mixes — they almost always have extra sugar.
How the C2AR Score Helps
The C2AR score on GetDrunkNotFat tells you, as a percentage, how much of a drink's calories come from alcohol versus sugar and other sources. A drink that scores A+ gets 95% or more of its calories from pure alcohol. An F-rated drink gets less than 40% of its calories from alcohol — meaning the majority of what you're consuming is sugar.
Rather than memorizing calorie counts for hundreds of drinks, you can use the score as a quick filter: stick to A and B-rated drinks and you are automatically choosing options with less empty sugar relative to their alcohol content.
Find your lowest calorie option
Search 615+ drinks by name, or filter by category and sort by score.