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. 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.

Vegan food news of the week: Yves returns, Starbucks' new chicken sandwich, and Beyond Steak at Erewhon. Yves' grand return to Canadian shelves, lattes and mocktails for fall, the Starbucks sandwich that has VegNews looking for its passports, and much more. September 18, 2026 If you love celebrity interviews, vegan food, and playful challenges, VegNews has a new show recommendation for you: Is It Vegan? With LaTocha has just landed on BuzzFeed's Tasty YouTube channel. The new series follows Grammy-nominated artist LaTocha as she chats with pioneering young creatives, including Cobra Kai actor Dallas Dupree Young and The Traitors star Sam Asghari, over plenty of vegan food and a few entertaining challenges along the way. "Tasty has always been about more than recipes. It's about the conversations and cultural moments that happen around food," Richard Allen Reid, president of BuzzFeed Studios, told VegNews. "LaTocha was the perfect partner to lead this series because she makes vegan food feel approachable, exciting, and fun for audiences around the world." You can watch the first episode here. But before you do, it's time for this week's food news, and fall flavors are firmly in the spotlight. After a tough year, Yves Veggie Cuisine is officially back in Canada's grocery stores. Yves Veggie Cuisine Yves Veggie Cuisine is officially back on Canadian shelves. Just over a year after the brand announced it was disappearing for good - and nine months since it was acquired by Maple Leaf Foods - Yves Veggie Cuisine's beloved vegan products are officially back on the shelves in Canada. "Yves is one of those rare brands that people didn't just buy - they built routines, recipes, and traditions around it," says Adam Grogan, Maple Leaf Foods' president and chief operating officer. "When Yves disappeared from shelves, Canadians made it very clear how much this brand meant to them. We heard that passion. Bringing Yves back is about honoring 40 years of trust, protecting what people have always loved about the products, and giving this iconic Canadian brand an exciting next chapter." Keep your eyes peeled: Yves Original Veggie Ground Round, Yves Mexican Veggie Ground Round, Yves Veggie Ham, Yves Veggie Bologna, and Yves Veggie Turkey are now appearing at retailers across the country. Ryze's new fall coffee is pumpkin spice with a mushroom twist. Ryze Mushroom pumpkin spice lattes land at Target just in time for fall. Looking to get your pumpkin spice latte fix? You've got options. Recently, VegNews reported that Gregorys Coffee has a vegan-friendly version of the fall classic. But you can also stock up on dairy-free pumpkin spice lattes during your next Target trip. Mushroom coffee brand Ryze has just launched its new Pumpkin Spice Latte at Target stores nationwide. The vegan drink has all the seasonal flavor you'd expect, thanks to the addition of cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg. It also gets an added boost from American-grown, organic functional mushrooms. "PSL season has always been one of my favorites, but I could never find something that satisfied my flavor craving without being crammed full of sugar," says Ryze co-founder Andrée Werner. "So, we decided to make it. Our Pumpkin Spice Latte tastes indulgent and cozy like fall, but is packed with functional benefits thanks to our organic six-mushroom blend." Recess's Zero Proof cocktails are made with functional ingredients, including guayusa. Recess Zero-proof Recess cocktails are here to help you unwind this fall without the hangover. Let's be honest, indulging in a fall cocktail or two is all well and good until the next day. If you want to enjoy the seasonal festivities without the sore head, Recess has just added two new Zero Proof fall cocktails to its lineup: the Apple 'Tini and the Espresso 'Tini. Even better, both flavors are also designed to help you unwind, thanks to functional ingredients like guayusa, L-theanine, and lemon balm. Find them at Target, H-E-B, and Amazon throughout fall and the holiday season. Beyond Meat's Beyond Steak Filet is made with mycelium. Beyond Meat Beyond Meat's mycelium steak lands at Erewhon. Fresh from announcing Phytosphere (read more about that here), Beyond Meat, also known as The Beyond Plant Protein Company or simply Beyond, has launched Beyond Steak Filet at Erewhon stores across Southern California. The mycelium-based filet, which contains 28 grams of plant protein and three grams of fiber, first hit shelves at H-E-B and Wegmans earlier this year. Its Erewhon rollout appears to be the next step in positioning the vegan steak, and Beyond more broadly, as part of a wellness-focused lifestyle. "Beyond Steak Filet reflects our continued commitment to unlocking the superpowers of plants through what we believe is a category-defining innovation," said Beyond Meat founder and CEO Ethan Brown. He added: "Launching Beyond Steak Filet at Erewhon brings this exciting offering to a community that values thoughtfully crafted nutrition and simple ingredients, through a retailer that has long been at the forefront of what's next in wellness." Trubar has launched three new seasonal flavors for fall and the holidays. Trubar Trubar launches three seasonal protein bars, including pumpkin spice. Pumpkin spice isn't just for lattes. Trubar has launched its limited-edition Pumpkin Spice Spice Baby protein bar, which packs 12 grams of protein and 13 grams of fiber per serving. Not a pumpkin spice fan? Trubar has also released Peppermint Please, inspired by peppermint chocolate bark, and the gingerbread-flavored Ginger Snap That protein bar. Find all of the new seasonal flavors on Amazon this fall. Starbucks customers in Germany can now order the new vegan chicken focaccia. Planted There's a new vegan chicken focaccia at Starbucks, but it's in Germany. Last week, VegNews reported that Burger King had launched a new vegan chicken burger, but only in Austria. This week, VegNews is bringing you more bittersweet news: Starbucks has introduced a focaccia featuring vegan chicken from Swiss brand Planted, but it's available exclusively in Germany. "For us, this is a pretty exciting step," Planted wrote on LinkedIn. "Getting more plants onto plates also means making them available in the places people already know, love and visit every day - with Starbucks, that's quite a few places." Starbucks US, your move.