Americans wanted a coffee alternative. The one they picked still has coffee in it.
New SmartScout data shows RYZE, a mushroom coffee blend, now brings in more revenue than Nescafé or Starbucks in Amazon's Instant Coffee category. The caffeine alternatives made without coffee are growing at a fraction of that pace, and several of the best-known names are shrinking.
A Mushroom Brand Now Leads the Instant Aisle
RYZE blends mushroom powders with a smaller dose of coffee and sells it as a gentler way to start the day. On Amazon, it is now the top brand in Instant Coffee, with 18.7% of category revenue, or $3,374,391 a month.
Nescafé is second at 13.2% and $2,376,174. Starbucks is third at 11.4% and $2,052,561. Taster's Choice, Mount Hagen and Folgers follow, each with less than 6%.
RYZE gets there with far fewer units. It moves 68,025 units per month in the category, against 192,592 for Nescafé. Its average listing price is $67.21, roughly double Nescafé's $32.50 and Starbucks' $38.20. It needs nine listings to do it. Nescafé has 159.
Across all 22 of its products, RYZE brings in $4,191,101 a month, or $75,938,416 a year. That is up 43.2% from a year ago, and every sale goes through a single seller.
A product marketed as a way off coffee is now the best-selling coffee in its aisle.
Fewer Searches, More Sales
The growth is happening while interest, measured by search, is falling. Searches for "ryze mushroom coffee" fell 21.3% over the past year, from 439,680 a month to 346,056. Searches for the generic term "mushroom coffee" fell 22.2%, to 195,516.
The rest of the category followed. Searches for Cuppa mushroom coffee fell 22.9%. Four Sigmatic fell 19.1%. Everyday Dose fell 76.4%, to 12,880 a month. Laird was the one brand search that grew, up 20.1%.
Revenue moved the other way. RYZE is up 43.2%. Everyday Dose, despite the collapse in searches for its name, grew revenue 12%, to $20,463,289 a year.
One reading of the gap is that mushroom coffee has stopped being new. Shoppers who already drink it do not search for it. They reorder.
The curiosity phase is ending. The habit phase pays better.
Coffee Itself Is Still Growing
The idea that Americans are quitting coffee does not show up in Amazon's numbers. The Coffee category brings in $3,100,079,393 a year, up 12% from a year ago. Amazon sells about 70% of it directly.
Every major format grew, and the most convenient ones grew fastest. Iced coffee and cold brew rose 45%, to $61,542,398 a year. Instant coffee rose 38%, to $217,184,442. Whole beans rose 22% and ground coffee 20%, to $382,940,139 and $430,872,515. Ready-to-drink bottled coffee rose 13%.
What goes in the cup is growing too. Coffee creamers are up 36%, to $89,506,211 a year. Plant-based creamers are up 31%.
The tell is the hardware. Coffee makers are down 3%, to $806,265,513 a year, and coffee machines are down 10%. Shoppers are spending more on coffee and less on the equipment that brews it the traditional way.
Revenue includes price changes, so some of that 12% is higher prices, not more cups. Even so, no format of coffee itself is shrinking.
The Further From Coffee, the Slower the Growth
Ranking caffeine alternatives on Amazon by year-over-year revenue growth produces a clean gradient. The closer a product stays to coffee, the faster it grows.
Where coffee is still in the cup, growth is strongest: RYZE up 43.2%, the Instant Coffee category it leads up 38%.
Where coffee is replaced by a supplement or a tea, growth slows to single digits: mushroom supplements up 6%, to $308,098,398 a year, and matcha up 5%, to $123,185,356.
Where coffee is replaced entirely, growth nearly stops. Coffee Substitutes, the caffeine-free roasted blends made from chicory, grains and herbs, grew 3%, to $30,999,728 a year. Amazon shoppers spend about 100 dollars on coffee for every dollar they spend on substitutes. Searches for "coffee alternative" fell 19.6%.
The brand results split the same way. Guayaki grew 15.8%, Laird Superfood 13.7% and Everyday Dose 12%. Four Sigmatic, one of the first mushroom coffee brands, fell 12.3%, to $22,751,545 a year. Teeccino, the best-known herbal coffee, fell 12.3%. Jade Leaf Matcha fell 13.6%, to $22,564,216.
The market is rewarding products that keep the coffee and change the rest.
The Alternatives That Changed Shape
Guayaki is the exception that proves the pattern. Its growth came from changing what it sells.
Searches for loose yerba mate fell 33%, from 131,079 a month to 87,876. Searches for yerba mate tea fell 27.9%. Searches for yerba mate energy drinks rose 148%, from 14,787 to 36,678. Amazon now lists Guayaki, which sells under the Yerba Madre storefront, in Energy Drinks rather than tea. It brings in $1,380,997 a month.
Matcha shows a different kind of change. Category revenue grew 5%, but the best-known brand shrank. Jade Leaf fell 13.6% while the category grew, as sales spread across 989 brands and third-party sellers took 94% of revenue.
The ritual gear is fading faster than the tea. Searches for matcha whisk sets fell 59.5%, and revenue in Matcha Whisks fell 25%. Searches for ceremonial-grade matcha powder fell 23.1%.
Yerba mate grew by turning into a canned energy drink. Matcha grew by splintering into hundreds of small brands. Neither grew by acting like a replacement for coffee.
What Americans Are Actually Replacing
On Amazon, Americans are still buying coffee. What they are leaving behind is the version that needs a machine, a grinder and time. The fastest-growing formats dissolve, pour or come in a can: instant up 38%, iced coffee and cold brew up 45%, yerba mate energy drink searches up 148%
RYZE fits that pattern. It is a scoop of powder sold as a gentler start to the day, and it still contains coffee. The products that asked shoppers to give coffee up entirely, such as caffeine-free substitutes, are barely growing, and the best-known of them is shrinking.
The alternative that won kept the coffee.
Sources and Data Notes
- SmartScout: Estimated Amazon revenue, brand share and monthly search volume for the United States marketplace, pulled October 15, 2026. Year-over-year figures compare the current month with the same month a year earlier. Annual revenue figures are SmartScout estimates.
- Categories: Coffee, Instant Coffee, Ground Coffee, Whole Coffee Beans, Iced Coffee & Cold-Brew, Ready to Drink Liquid Coffee, Coffee Creamers, Plant-Based Coffee Creamers, Coffee Makers, Coffee Machines, Mushrooms (herbal supplements), Matcha, Matcha Whisks, Coffee Substitutes.
- Search terms: ryze mushroom coffee; mushroom coffee; cuppa mushroom coffee; four sigmatic mushroom coffee; everyday dose mushroom coffee; laird mushroom coffee; yerba mate; yerba mate tea; yerba mate energy drinks; matcha whisk set; ceremonial grade matcha powder; coffee alternative.
- Price note: revenue growth includes any price increases over the period.
- To confirm before publishing: RYZE's coffee content, from its current product listing.
This story was produced by SmartScout and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
