Cherry Calories & Nutrition Calculator

Sweet cherry (*Prunus avium*) at 63 kcal per 100g and sour/tart cherry (*Prunus cerasus*) at 50 kcal per 100g are botanically related but nutritionally distinct. Sweet cherry has 26% more calories, 51% more sugar (12.8g vs 8.5g), but sour cherry has 21x more vitamin A (64mcg RAE vs 3mcg) and 43% more vitamin C (10mg vs 7mg) ^[1].

One cup of sweet cherries without pits (154g) has 97 kcal and 19.7g sugar. One cup of sour cherries (155g) has 78 kcal and 13.2g sugar. Sweet cherries are the variety typically eaten fresh (Bing, Rainier, Lambert), while sour cherries are primarily used in cooking, pies, and juice (Montmorency, Morello).

For food journaling, always specify sweet or sour — the calorie and sugar differences are substantial. If eating fresh cherries from a store or farmer's market, they are almost certainly sweet cherries. Sour cherries are rarely sold fresh at retail and are more commonly found frozen, dried, or as juice concentrate.

Sour cherry contains 64mcg vitamin A (RAE) per 100g — 7% of the daily value — entirely from beta-carotene (770mcg). Sweet cherry has just 3mcg RAE from 38mcg beta-carotene. This 21-fold difference makes sour cherry one of the richest vitamin A fruits, comparable to apricot (96mcg) and mango (54mcg), while sweet cherry ranks near the bottom ^[1][4].

The visual clue is color depth: sour cherries are typically deep red to dark red (high beta-carotene and anthocyanins), while sweet cherries range from pale yellow (Rainier) to dark red (Bing). The darker the cherry, the more carotenoid and anthocyanin pigments it contains.

For nutrition journaling, this distinction matters primarily for vitamin A tracking. If logging cherry consumption for beta-carotene, use the sour cherry variant. One cup of sour cherries (155g) provides 99mcg vitamin A (11% DV) — as much as two medium apricots.

Sweet cherry delivers 222mg potassium per 100g — ahead of strawberry (153mg), blueberry (77mg), blackberry (162mg), and grape (191mg). One cup of sweet cherries (154g) provides 342mg potassium — 7% of the daily value — comparable to a small banana (101g, 362mg). Sour cherry has less: 173mg per 100g ^[1].

The potassium-to-calorie ratio in sweet cherry is 3.5mg per kcal — similar to banana (4.0mg/kcal) and better than many higher-calorie fruits like mango (2.8mg/kcal) and grapes (2.8mg/kcal). A serving of 20 cherries (~136g) delivers 302mg potassium at just 86 calories.

For food journaling, sweet cherries are a moderate but reliable potassium source. They're not as concentrated as avocado (507mg) or dried apricots (1162mg), but the high consumption volume makes them practical contributors during cherry season.

Cherries — particularly tart/sour varieties — contain melatonin at 1-13ng per gram of fresh weight, making them one of the few common foods with measurable melatonin content. This compound is not reported in USDA's standard nutrient database. Research has documented melatonin in both sweet (Prunus avium) and sour (Prunus cerasus) varieties, with Montmorency sour cherry being the most studied ^[3][4].

Cherry anthocyanins range from 2-350mg per 100g depending on variety, with sour cherries generally having higher concentrations than sweet. The primary anthocyanin is cyanidin-3-glucosylrutinoside in sweet cherry and cyanidin-3-rutinoside in sour cherry. These pigments give cherries their red-to-dark-red color.

For food journaling, standard calorie trackers won't show melatonin or anthocyanin content. If tracking phytonutrient diversity, note that darker cherries (Bing, Montmorency) have higher anthocyanin concentrations than lighter varieties (Rainier, Royal Ann).

A single sweet cherry (with pit removed) weighs approximately 6.8g and has 4.3 kcal. Ten cherries = ~43 kcal. Twenty cherries = ~86 kcal. One cup without pits (154g, ~23 cherries) = 97 kcal. This discrete-unit nature makes cherries one of the easiest fruits to count for food journaling ^[1].

The practical challenge is that cherries are extremely easy to eat in large quantities — the hand-to-mouth, pop-and-pit rhythm of cherry eating can lead to consuming 300-500g (190-315 kcal) in a single sitting without realizing it. A 500g bowl (roughly 74 cherries) has 315 kcal and 64g sugar — equivalent to two and a half bananas.

For food journaling, count or weigh cherries before eating rather than after. A handful of cherries is typically 8-12 berries (35-80 kcal). The empty pit bowl method (eating, then counting pits) works for rough calorie estimation: number of pits × 4.3 kcal.