(updated August 25th, 2026)
Yes, and less than you might expect. The regular Hills Bros. cappuccino mixes carry around 40 to 52 mg of caffeine per serving, which is less than a single shot of espresso.
Worth saying where that comes from, because it explains why you’ll see different numbers online. Hills Bros. doesn’t publish caffeine figures on its own website, so the only source is the packet, and those figures reach the internet through retailer listings that don’t always agree with each other.
How Much Caffeine Is In Hills Bros. Cappuccino?
Taken from the caffeine statements printed on the packs, as reproduced by grocery retailers:
| Product | Caffeine per serving |
|---|---|
| French Vanilla | 52 mg |
| English Toffee | 52 mg |
| Double Mocha | 52 mg |
| White Chocolate Caramel | 40 mg |
| Sugar Free French Vanilla | 27 mg |
| Decaf French Vanilla | Sold as no caffeine |
A serving is bigger than the sachet-sized drinks people often picture. The French Vanilla pack says three and a half tablespoons of powder into 12 fl oz of hot water, so that’s 52 mg for a large mug rather than a small cup.
Treat these as close rather than exact. Retailer listings for the same product sometimes disagree, formulations change, and Hy-Vee attaches a note to its own product data saying it may come from third parties or automated tools and may not be independently verified. If a precise number matters to you, the packet in your hand is the one to trust.
Is That A Lot Of Caffeine?
No. The FDA cites 400 mg a day for most adults as an amount not generally associated with negative effects, which it puts at about two to three 12 fl oz cups of coffee. A 52 mg serving is a little over a tenth of that.
It is also less than the coffee shop version. A single-shot cappuccino runs about 63 mg, so a mug of Hills Bros. sits below a small cappuccino from a cafe despite being more than twice the volume. There isn’t much coffee in it, which is the real story of this drink and the next section is about that.
Does The Sugar Free Version Have More Caffeine?
No, it has less. The Sugar Free French Vanilla pack states 27 mg per serving against the regular version’s 52 mg, and its serving is smaller too, two and a half tablespoons rather than three and a half.
The idea that going sugar free buys you a caffeine hit in exchange is a reasonable guess, and it isn’t what the labels say. Sugar and caffeine are unrelated ingredients here, so removing one doesn’t add the other.
What Else Is In Hills Bros. Cappuccino?
This is the part the caffeine question tends to distract from. Ingredients are listed in descending order of weight, and on the French Vanilla pack the order runs: sugar first, then creamer, whey powder, nonfat dry milk, and instant coffee seventh out of thirteen.
A serving carries 25 g of total sugars, 19 g of which are added, which the label puts at 38% of a daily value. For comparison, a cappuccino made from espresso and milk carries roughly 4 to 5 g of sugar, all of it lactose from the milk and none of it added.
So it’s a sweet milky drink with coffee in it rather than a coffee drink, which is the same shape as the Nescafe sachets. The sugar free version reorders that list, with maltodextrin first and instant coffee third.
Should You Drink It For The Caffeine?
If caffeine’s what you’re after, this is an inefficient way to get it. You’re taking 170 calories and 25 g of sugar to reach roughly 52 mg, where a plain instant coffee would get you there for almost nothing.
Drink it because you like it, which is a perfectly good reason and probably the honest one. Just count it as something closer to a hot dessert than a cup of coffee, and if you’re watching your intake, note that the caffeine is the smallest thing in the cup worth worrying about.
