A cup of Rasa Elderberry Boost with cloves of cinammon, ginger, and anise on a bright wood table.
Courtesy Rasa

These Coffee Alternatives Offer a Better Way to Add Some Pep to Your Step

The herbal tonics from Mud\Wtr, Dandy Blend, and Rasa deliver a coffee-like boost.
By Kathryn O’Shea-Evans
January 9, 2021
2 minute read

Despite coffee’s side effects, which can include pit-in-your-stomach anxiety and sleepless nights, caffeine addicts have turned to the drink for ages—and consumption of the beverage, according to the National Coffee Association, only seems to be growing. But coffee’s not the only way to add some pep to your step. There are a number of tasty alternatives—both new and established—out there, with the aim of delivering a boost that’s better for us and, given much of the coffee and cocoa industry’s deforestation and labor issues, the world. One of our favorite coffee proxies? Mud\Wtr, a blend of familiar ingredients (masala chai, turmeric, sea salt, lion’s mane mushrooms, and others) that impart a comparatively calm, nerves-free stimulus, and can be sweetened with honey or creamer after dissolving a tablespoon of the powder into hot water. The similarly prepared, caffeine-free Dandy Blend actually tastes like a coffee-and-hot chocolate mashup, which is surprising, given that it’s made from dandelion, chicory, and beet roots that coincidentally support adrenal functions. We’re also drinking herbal tonics from Rasa, a company based in Boulder, Colorado, that offers multiple blends that promote immunity, lower stress levels, and increase joy. “So many of us use coffee as a way to extract more resources from our bodies,” says Lopa van der Mersch, Rasa’s founder and CEO. “We take too much, just like we do from the earth. At Rasa, we’re on a mission to redefine how we relate to energizing ourselves.” Caffeine jitters aside, these wholesome refreshments are well worth the while.