How Much Sugar Is in a Mojito, a Margarita, and Their Mocktails? The Numbers

By Jason LaValla, founder, Casamara Club · September 2026

Jump to: Sugar and calories per drink · Where the sugar comes from · "Sugar-free" mojitos and "skinny" margaritas · Cutting sugar without sweeteners · The two cans against the table · FAQ

The objection to a drink made without spirits is usually one word: sugar. Fair enough. Here are the grams per drink, from standard recipes and labeled panels, sources at the bottom.

The short answer: a classic mojito carries about 8 grams of sugar from its two teaspoons, and a classic margarita roughly 7 to 11 grams from the orange liqueur, more if agave goes in. Taking the rum or tequila out removes about 97 calories per 1½ oz and no sugar at all, because the sugar was never in the spirit. A virgin mojito has the same sugar as a mojito. A margarita made from shelf-stable mix has more than either. Our cans: Superclasico Mojito is 14 g per 8 oz can, Superclasico Margarita is 9 g.

Sugar and calories per drink

The recipe sets the number, whether or not a spirit is in the glass. Serving sizes are on every row, because mix panels use 4 oz and cans use 8 or 12.

Two things. The mojito, the drink people picture as the sugary one, has the lowest number in the table made the classic way; the bar pour of syrup is what climbs. And the margarita's number depends almost entirely on how the orange got in: liqueur, agave, juice, or mix.

Where the sugar comes from

In a mojito it is the sweetener you add; in a margarita it is the orange liqueur, the agave, and any orange juice. The lime contributes almost nothing: about 1.7 g of sugar per 100 g of juice, so the 20 mL in an IBA mojito is roughly a third of a gram.

• Simple syrup at 1:1: about 8 to 9 g per ½ oz, so ¾ oz is roughly 12 to 14 g and 1 oz roughly 16 to 18. The mojito's real variable; a free pour doubles the classic recipe's sugar.
• Orange liqueur: roughly 7 to 11 g per ounce depending on the brand.
• Agave syrup: about 14 g per tablespoon (½ oz), mostly fructose, which tastes sweeter than table sugar gram for gram.
• Shelf-stable mix: water, then high-fructose corn syrup, then acids, preservatives, flavor, gum, and dye; 24 g and 110 calories per 4 oz labeled serving, so a 6 oz bar pour is 36 g. Panels in our non-alcoholic margarita mix guide.

The spirit adds calories and no sugar: an 80-proof spirit is about 97 calories per 1½ oz and 0 g of carbohydrate. That is the whole arithmetic behind "is a mocktail just sugar water." Drop the spirit and the sugar stays where it was, and the classic recipes carry less than people assume: 8 g for a mojito is about a fifth of a can of cola.

"Sugar-free" mojitos and "skinny" margaritas

A skinny margarita still has sugar, and a sugar-free mojito changes the taste of the mint. "Skinny" means the orange liqueur is out and agave is in: about 14 g, every gram of it agave, which is sugar. What it mostly saves is the orange.

A sugar-free mojito swaps the teaspoons for stevia, erythritol, monk fruit, or sucralose. It will be sweet. The trade is in the mint: stevia and sugar alcohols with mint are a known bad pairing, metallic, with a cooling aftertaste that does not leave. Sugar also gives the glass body and softens the lime; the sweetener versions read thin next to it.

Our position is on our FAQ, under "Why do you add sugar/honey to your drinks?": "Because it tastes good. Sugar-free sweeteners like Stevia, monkfruit, and aspartame have never tasted that great to us. Sweetening with fruit juice alone can taste great, but it can overpower the botanicals we want to highlight. We think a few grams of real sugar is a much cleaner, tastier way to add depth of flavor to the botanicals we're playing with." Every Superclasico can carries real sugar and no stevia.

Cutting sugar in a from-scratch build without sweeteners

Measure the sweetener, halve it, and put the sweetness back as acid and aroma. Full builds are in the virgin mojito recipe, the virgin margarita recipe, and on our recipes page.

• Measure the syrup. The gap between the classic mojito and the bar mojito is a jigger: 2 tsp of sugar or ½ oz of 1:1 syrup is 8 to 9 g; a free-poured ounce is double.
• Halve it. One teaspoon in a mojito is about 4 g and the mint still reads. Cutting a virgin margarita's agave from ¾ oz to ½ oz takes it from about 24 g to under 20.
• More lime. Sweetness is relative to acid; an extra ¼ oz makes a half-sugar mojito taste balanced rather than flat and adds about a tenth of a gram. Juice and lime peel do different jobs: juice is the acid, peel is the aroma.
• More soda, smaller glass. Topping longer lowers sugar per ounce; the glass still holds the same grams. A 6 oz drink with 1 tsp instead of an 8 oz drink with 2 does both.
• Sweetness as aroma. Expressed lime peel, a slapped sprig of mint, orange peel over a margarita: the nose reads them as sweet and they carry no sugar.

The two cans against the table

An 8 oz can of Superclasico Mojito is 14 g of sugar and 55 calories; an 8 oz can of Superclasico Margarita is 9 g and 40. The Mojito sits between the classic recipe and a bar mojito with syrup, in a bigger pour than either. The Margarita sits at the top of the plain classic's range, well under half the scratch virgin build, and a bit over a third of one 4 oz serving of shelf-stable mix. Both are coming soon in 12-can packs and up; tap Notify Me on either product page and we will tell you when it ships.

In both, the sugar is the sweetener on the label and nothing else: Demerara cane sugar in the Mojito, the "demerara on the finish," and blue agave syrup in the Margarita. Both panels list all of it as added, because that is what it is. How we pour them, cold, down the wall of a small glass, is in how to serve Casamara Club; the from-scratch build sits alongside each can on the virgin mojito and non-alcoholic margarita pages.

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Superclasico Mojito

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Does a virgin mojito have less sugar than a mojito?

A: No. Same sugar, about 97 fewer calories, because the rum carried calories and no sugar. Made the classic way, both are about 8 g; with a bar's free pour of syrup, both can be 12 to 18 g.

Q: Is agave better than cane sugar?

A: No. Agave is a different sugar, not a better one. It is mostly fructose, so it reads sweeter per gram, and a recipe can use a little less of it. Cane sugar reads less sweet per gram and carries more body. Agave syrup runs about 14 g of sugar per tablespoon; read the grams on the panel whichever one is named.

Q: How much sugar is in a can of Superclasico?

A: The Mojito is 14 g and 55 calories per 8 oz can; the Margarita is 9 g and 40. Demerara cane sugar in the Mojito, blue agave syrup in the Margarita, all of it listed as added. Both are coming soon in 12-can packs and up; the product pages take your email.

Q: Can I make a sugar-free mojito?

A: Yes. Fresh mint and lime, soda water, and a sweetener in place of the sugar gets you 0 g. The trade-off is taste: stevia and sugar alcohols with mint read metallic, with a cooling aftertaste that lingers, and the drink loses the body the sugar gave it.

Q: Does soda water have sugar?

A: No. Soda water, club soda, and seltzer are carbonated water, sometimes with a little mineral salt, 0 g of sugar. Tonic water is different: the USDA generic entry is 32 g per 12 oz, and brand panels run from about 20 g up to that. A mojito is topped with soda.

Sources

• USDA FoodData Central: granulated sugar 4.2 g and 16 calories per teaspoon; distilled spirits, 80 proof, 97 calories and 0 g carbohydrate per 1.5 fl oz; agave syrup about 14 g sugar per tablespoon; orange juice about 2.6 g sugar per fl oz; lime juice about 1.7 g sugar per 100 g; cola about 39 g sugar and 140 calories per 12 fl oz. fdc.nal.usda.gov
• National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, "What Is a Standard Drink?", for the 1.5 oz spirit serving. rethinkingdrinking.niaaa.nih.gov
• International Bartenders Association official list: Mojito (45 mL rum, 20 mL lime, 2 tsp white cane sugar, mint, soda); Margarita (50 mL tequila, 20 mL triple sec, 15 mL lime). iba-world.com
• Orange liqueur sugar: Cointreau publishes 6.9 g per 30 mL; generic triple secs run to about 11 g per oz on producer panels. cointreau.com
• Shelf-stable margarita mix panel: 4 fl oz, 110 calories, 24 g sugars; water, high-fructose corn syrup, citric acid, sodium citrate, preservatives, natural flavor, cellulose gum, Yellow 5 and 6. USDA branded foods via myfooddata
• Calorie totals per drink (the rows marked "house arithmetic") are computed from the figures above and rounded: sugar at 4 calories per gram, 80-proof spirits at 97 per 1.5 oz, orange liqueur from its alcohol and sugar (about 70 to 95 per oz), agave syrup about 65 per tablespoon, orange juice about 13 per oz, lime juice about 7 per oz. Worked: classic mojito 34 sugar + 98 rum + 1 lime = about 130; virgin mojito about 35; bar mojito 48 to 72 sugar + 98 rum = about 150 to 170; classic margarita 129 tequila + 70 to 95 liqueur + 7 lime = about 200 to 230; skinny 129 + 65 + 7 = about 200; virgin margarita 98 agave + 13 orange juice + 11 lime = about 120.
• Tonic water: USDA FoodData Central, carbonated beverage, tonic, 32 g sugar per 12 fl oz. USDA via myfooddata
• Lime juice, raw: USDA FoodData Central, 1.7 g sugar and 25 calories per 100 g.
• Casamara Club FAQ, "Why do you add sugar/honey to your drinks?", and the virgin mojito page, read live September 6, 2026. casamaraclub.com/pages/faq

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