Mushroom coffees, chicory, herbal roasts, matcha, and everything people try when regular coffee stops working for them. We test every drink, read the studies, and won't tell you your favorite brand is best if it isn't.
Start here →AI-generated photograph · image policy
Most of the plants in this category earned the word “coffee” in their name because someone, somewhere, roasted and brewed them as a substitute for the real thing. Kentucky coffee tree is the most literal version of that story anywhere on this site — its com...
If you drink coffee or tea every day and you’re fasting for Ramadan this year, there’s a decent chance the first day or two isn’t going to be about hunger. I...
Someone in a hypothyroidism forum asks a version of this question every few weeks, usually right after they’ve made a change they were proud of: I switched f...
Chicory root’s whole reputation as a “gentle” coffee substitute rests on the same molecule that makes it a problem for a meaningful share of readers: inulin,...
I have reviewed a lot of herbal coffees. Most of them disappoint in the same way: they’re reasonable herbal drinks, but they taste nothing like coffee, and m...
Ryze is currently the best-selling direct-to-consumer mushroom coffee in the US. It’s worth evaluating on its own terms rather than on the marketing-adjacent...
We tested MUD\WTR Rise against three other mushroom coffees (Ryze, Four Sigmatic, Om) in a blind taste panel. MUD\WTR won on taste by a clear margin. It was ...
Most of us end up on a coffee-alternatives search because something changed: a bad night of sleep, a new medication, a pregnancy, a health scare, or just the creeping sense that the fourth cup isn't doing what the first one used to. The web has plenty of listicles selling the alternatives — far fewer that help you understand them.
We write for the reader in the middle of it: tired, curious, a little skeptical, looking for someone who's actually tried the thing and can say whether it lives up to the claims. We include the products we think are worth trying, we disclose the ones we earn a commission on, and we never rank something first because of a payout.
No email list yet — we'd rather not take your address until we can actually use it. New articles go out on the RSS feed.