Chaas calories
A 200 ml glass of home chaas, curd whisked with about three times as much water, has about 30 calories. A large 250 ml glass is about 35. The curd is the whole number: a 200 ml glass made thick, with about 100 g of curd, is about 60. Restaurant or packed chaas, often thicker, runs about 30 to 60.
Chaas is curd whisked with water and salt, often with roasted cumin, ginger, green chilli, mint or coriander as masala chaas. It's drunk with lunch across Gujarat, Rajasthan and Punjab, and in the south as majjige or neer mor.
Most of a glass is water, so chaas is one of the lightest drinks there is. The amount of curd in it sets the number.
Typical values for a home kitchen, for the portion named next to each number. Other sites often show bigger numbers because they count a bigger serving or a restaurant recipe. Your own katori, roti and oil change the number; Slate adjusts for them.
How many calories are in chaas?
| Portion | Cals | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 glass (200 ml) about 200 g | 30 | 2 g | 2 g | 2 g |
| 1 large glass (250 ml) about 250 g | 35 | 2 g | 3 g | 2 g |
| 1 tall glass (textbook, about 420 ml) about 420 g | 60 | 4 g | 5 g | 3 g |
| 200 ml chaas made thick (about 100 g curd) | 60 | 3 g | 5 g | 3 g |
How does home chaas compare with outside?
Restaurant and packed chaas is sometimes thicker than home chaas, with more curd per glass. A thali restaurant's chaas is often refilled freely.
We found no lab figure for it, so the range below allows up to twice the curd in a 200 ml glass.
| Version | Cals | Fat |
|---|---|---|
| Home | 30 | 2 g |
| Restaurant or packed | 30 to 60 | 2 to 3 g |
What changes the calories in chaas?
- The curd is the whole number. More water lowers it; a thick chaas can be twice as much.
- Curd from toned or skimmed milk lowers it further.
- Cumin, ginger, mint, coriander and salt add almost nothing.
- Sweet lassi adds sugar: see lassi.
How were these numbers worked out?
The recipe is the salted lassi in The Art & Science of Cooking (via the Indian Nutrient Databank): 100 g of curd whisked with half a cup of water and 4 to 5 ice cubes, about 320 ml in all, with roasted cumin and no fat added. Curd is valued from USDA's plain whole-milk yogurt, since IFCT 2017 has no curd. The glass is the ingredients added together, about 420 g, so the whole textbook glass is 60 calories and chaas is 15 calories per 100 g; a 200 ml glass at 1 g per ml, like water, is 30. The thick chaas row adds curd so that a 200 ml glass is half curd and half water. No analysed Indian chaas exists; USDA's cultured buttermilk is a thicker, different drink and is not used, so there is no cross-check. No restaurant or packed chaas has been analysed either; the range runs to twice the curd per glass. Every dish on Slate is worked out the same way: how Slate counts calories.
| Ingredient | Raw | Values from |
|---|---|---|
| Curd (dahi), whole milk | 100 g | USDA FDC 171284 |
| Water half a cup of water and 4 to 5 ice cubes | 320 g | no calories |
| Cumin seeds | 0.3 g | IFCT 2017 G025 |
Sources
- USDA FoodData Central, Yogurt, plain, whole milk (171284). Curd, since IFCT 2017 has no curd
- Vijayakumar et al., Indian Nutrient Databank (INDB), Current Developments in Nutrition, 2024. The Art & Science of Cooking recipe ASC022, salted lassi
- ICMR-NIN, Indian Food Composition Tables 2017. Cumin (G025); values read from github.com/nodef/ifct2017
Questions people ask
How many calories are in 1 glass of chaas?
About 30 in a 200 ml glass, and about 60 for thick chaas made with equal curd and water.
How much protein is in chaas?
About 2 g in a 200 ml glass.
Is chaas the same as buttermilk?
In India, yes: chaas is diluted curd. Western cultured buttermilk is thicker and has more per glass.
Which has fewer calories, chaas or lassi?
Chaas, by a lot. A glass of sweet lassi has more curd and sugar, about 140.