← It's peeeeaaaakCaffeine

The best coffee alternatives in the UK, from matcha to guayusa

Matcha, yerba mate, guayusa, mushroom coffee, chicory and decaf side by side, with how each one tastes, roughly how much caffeine it has and the moment it suits best.

By Peak21 October 20264 min read

It is 3pm, your third coffee is going cold on the desk, and your heart is already playing a little drum solo. That is usually the moment people start looking at coffee alternatives, and the UK has more good ones than ever.

The best swap depends on how much caffeine you want and the moment you want it for. There is a great option at every point on that scale, from a full-strength lift to none at all.

The quick version

Swapping coffee is as much about the ritual as the caffeine.
Matcha and yerba mate sit closest to coffee, while guayusa can be brewed light or strong.
Mushroom coffee is roughly half coffee, and chicory is naturally caffeine free.
Decaf keeps the taste and the café ritual with only a trace of caffeine.
Peak makes a cold, sparkling swap for each end of the day.

Why are so many people swapping coffee?

Coffee is brilliant, and for lots of us it has slipped onto autopilot. A generation that has already rethought how it drinks alcohol is now doing the same with caffeine, picking drinks for how they want to feel at each point of the day.

The ritual matters as much as the drink. Whisking matcha in a bowl, passing a gourd of mate around friends or cracking a cold can after run club all give you a moment to reset, which is often what the coffee was really for.

How do the best coffee alternatives compare?

Here they are side by side, with a mug of instant coffee at about 100mg as the yardstick.

Drink	Caffeine, roughly	Taste	Best moment
Instant coffee	About 100mg a mug	Roasted and bold	The classic start
Matcha	Close to coffee	Nutty and grassy	A slow, hands-on morning
Yerba mate	About 80mg a cup	Bold, grassy and bitter	Sharing with friends
Guayusa	About 50mg to 145mg a mug	Earthy and subtly sweet	Brewing to your own strength
Mushroom coffee	About 50mg to 60mg a cup	Much like coffee	A lighter coffee
Chicory	None	Dark, nutty and roasty	Late evenings
Decaf	About 7mg a cup	Coffee, a touch softer	Afternoon catch ups
Peak Hype	60mg a can	Sparkling berry citrus	A cold lift on the go
Peak Calm	None	Sparkling juicy peach	Winding down

Which coffee alternative suits you?

Matcha is Japanese green tea, stone ground into a bright green powder that you whisk into water or milk. Because you drink the whole leaf, a generous scoop can rival your usual mug, and it is perfect if you love a ritual you can see.

Yerba mate is the national drink of Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, sipped through a metal straw and passed round a circle of friends. It sits near coffee for strength, with a bold flavour that grows on you.

Guayusa comes from the Ecuadorian Amazon, where Kichwa families brew it at dawn and share their dreams over the pot. It is smooth and gently sweet, and it is the leaf our founder Louie swapped coffee for in 2020, as our guide to guayusa explains.

Mushroom coffee blends regular coffee with powdered mushrooms such as lion's mane or reishi, usually half and half. It tastes a lot like the real thing, because it mostly is, so it suits coffee lovers who want a lighter dose.

Chicory is the roasted root of a blue-flowered plant, brewed dark and nutty with zero caffeine. Go for pure chicory when you want a warm, coffee-style mug at nine at night.

Decaf keeps the smell and flavour of coffee with only around 7mg of caffeine in a 200ml cup, so you can keep enjoying it well into the afternoon.

When is the best time to make the swap?

Keep the cup you truly love and swap the others. Here is when our community tends to switch:

The second cup. Make the mid-morning top up a matcha or a mug of guayusa.
The 3pm slump. A light brew or a cold can keeps the afternoon moving and leaves the evening yours.
Studio days. Deep work goes well with a measured dose you can plan around.
After dark. Chicory, decaf or a caffeine free can keeps the ritual going into the night.

Where does Peak fit?

Peak is a mood drink, a cold, lightly sparkling can that takes over the coffee moment in a fresh form. Louie started Peak after spotting the loop so many of us live in, with coffee to get going and alcohol to switch off, and we make two drinks so you can choose your mood.

Hype is our lifted mood: lifted, not wired. Each berry citrus can has 60mg of natural caffeine from guayusa, with L-tyrosine and vitamins B3, B6, B7 and B12, so you always know your dose. Hype contains caffeine and is not recommended for children or for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding. Calm is our relaxed mood, a caffeine free juicy peach drink with magnesium and L-theanine for the evening half of the day. We took both to a street takeover in Soho with the artist Slawn.

Try both moods in a Peak mixed pack.