How much sugar is in your favourite cocktail?

Each time you hit the town for a couple of cocktails you could be consuming a Tim Tam packet's worth of sugar. A mojito here, a margarita there and few vodka and orange juices to finish the night can quickly send your daily sugar and calorie intake into orbit.

It can be a hard field to navigate. You don't have to be a sugar Sherlock to work out that a creamy, juice-heavy pina colada is probably not very good for you, however an espresso martini can look innocent enough (there's no carbs in coffee, right?) but the addition of liqueur and sugar syrup to balance the bitterness can make it more sugary than a chocolate bar.

As a general rule of thumb, dietician Susie Burrell recommends steering clear of larger cocktails if you want to keep your health in check.

"Try to avoid drinks like mojitos, or vodka and orange juice in long glass," she says. "Basically the more mixer, whether it's tonic water, fruit juice or syrup, the more the calorie content is bumped up."

Burrell also says to keep your intake of sweet-tasting cocktails to a minimum, not just because they'll contain more sugar but because you're also likely to drink more of them.

"The sweeter the drink, the more you'll consume of it because you'll drink it more quickly," she says. "Lean towards sour-tasting drinks, as you'll drink something slower if it has a sour-tasting mouth-feel.

"I find a soda water mixed with a shot of vodka and some fresh lime is the best choice when it comes to keeping your calories down," Burrell says.

Goodfood.com.au calculated the average sugar content of some of Australia's more popular cocktails. These figures are only approximate, as the sugar content of a drink can vary depending on factors such as house recipes, the size of the glass, and how much mixer a bartender likes to add.

We've stuck to the most classic recipes we could for each and used Difford's Guide For Discerning Drinkers as our source.

For comparison's sake, a single Tim Tam original contains about 8 grams of sugar and a Milky Way contains 14.5 grams.