- Energy drinks are booming, with Monster reporting record sales in 2025 reaching just over $2bn
- Young consumers are shifting away from pricey coffee toward faster, stronger caffeine
- Major coffee brands want in, launching caffeine hybrids and RTD lines
FOR centuries, coffee was the world’s productivity fuel. The “coffee break,” formalised in American factories in the early 20th century, was designed to keep workers alert and assembly lines moving.
Caffeine, research shows, enhances focus, improves reaction speed and encourages the kind of linear thinking prized in industrial labour and later in office life. For generations, the drink was woven tightly into the fabric of work.
But coffee’s dominance is faltering – especially among the young. Gen Z and Gen Alpha are reaching adulthood with very different tastes, rituals and role models.
In the United States, coffee consumption among 18–24-year-olds has begun to dwindle, with the National Coffee Association reporting in its Spring 2025 National Coffee Data Trends report that 6 months ago, tea had started to outpace coffee for that generation. Meanwhile, energy drinks are booming: Monster Beverage Corp. reported “record” quarterly net sales in Q2 2025, reaching just above $2bn.
Headlines like “Energy drinks have become the new coffee for Gen Z” crowd the internet. Some argue that this shift is driven less by the product itself, and more by the appeal of convenience and marketing.
“I don’t think younger consumers are abandoning coffee – they’re responding to speed, convenience, and brands that fit how they actually live,” says Zohaib Aziz, Co-founder and CEO of The Coffee Party.
“Gen Z grew up in an always-on world and gravitates toward formats that are portable, immediate and lifestyle-driven. Traditional energy drinks positioned themselves well there, but growing awareness around ingredients is driving interest in cleaner RTD coffee formats that deliver real caffeine without artificial additives.”
Price nevertheless remains an important trigger of this shift from coffee to energy drinks. Specialty coffee has become dramatically more expensive, squeezed by climate shocks, labour shortages and rising operating costs for cafés. A cold brew that costs $6 faces stiff competition from a $2 can promising twice the caffeine.
Inflation has sharpened the difference: consumers are more intentional, and younger shoppers – particularly those still in school or early in their careers – are extremely price-sensitive.
Energy drinks also speak a cultural language coffee no longer fully commands. Productivity today is not about the 9-to-5, but about hustle, side gigs, gaming marathons and 24/7 connectivity. The most influential “productivity influencers” – from Twitch streamers to YouTubers – tend to promote energy drinks, not coffee.
“Energy drinks fit how daily life and wellness are being redefined for younger consumers,” says Kyle Newkirk, Chief Commercial Officer at Westrock Coffee. “They’re portable, immediate and tied to clear functional outcomes – energy, focus, mood – often supported by ingredients beyond caffeine. Just as importantly, they feel experiential: bold flavours, texture and novelty turn them into a ‘mood moment,’ not a utilitarian cup. Value and convenience matter too, especially under economic pressure.”
Brands have taken note. 60% of American energy drink consumers are reportedly under the age of 35, of which 64% are Gen Z, aged 18-24. TikTok is awash with viral launches, flavour reviews and “what I drink during finals week” videos. In this ecosystem, coffee is treated more as a ritual – slow, aesthetic, comforting. Energy drinks, by contrast, are tools – something easy to convert into sales.
“Energy drinks have traditionally been very male-oriented,” says Karen Green, retail, food and FMCG expert and coach at Buyerology and Friday Accelerator podcast host. “Red Bull’s branding revolves around performance sports like F1 and extreme challenges, while Monster leans heavily into gaming culture.”
“The underlying drivers are energy, performance and masculinity. That said, we’re now seeing newer brands like Trip and Tenzing push a more wellness-led narrative, and even Monster has tested a more female-focused line. Whether that signals a lasting shift or a short-term experiment remains to be seen.”
For the broader beverage market, the implication is clear: caffeine demand isn’t falling, but migrating instead.
Energy drinks: the new caffeine infrastructure
The United States is built on long commutes, vast highways and sprawl – conditions that favour fast, portable stimulation. Energy drinks fit neatly into this geography. They chill quickly, store easily and require no brewing, grinding or paraphernalia.
For a country where almost 70% of workers commute by car alone, convenience matters.
This helps explain why energy drinks have become increasingly mainstream. Once confined to extreme-sports branding, the category has expanded dramatically. Today’s shelves include zero-sugar performance drinks, functional beverages with electrolytes, hybrid “focus” drinks aimed at gamers and even “clean caffeine” brands marketed to wellness consumers.
“Coffee brands moving into energy shows that productivity is no longer just about staying awake at a desk,” says Zohaib. “It’s about fuelling movement, creativity and social life throughout the day. RTD coffee isn’t an energy drink in disguise – it’s still coffee, just reimagined for how people work, train and live now. Caffeinated productivity has to feel cleaner and more functional, not overstimulating or transactional.”
The market is now worth an estimated $25bn in the US alone. Globally, it exceeds $80bn – and is estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 6,75%.
Coffee companies have noticed. In 2022, Starbucks launched BAYA, an energy drink co-developed with PepsiCo. In 2020, Dunkin’ introduced its Dunkin’ Refresher line with added caffeine. In 2022, 7 Brew launched its 7 Energy line of canned energy drinks, and last year, Black Rifle Coffee Company struck a distribution deal with Keurig Dr. Pepper for its line of energy drinks.
Even smaller specialty roasters are increasingly launching ready-to-drink (RTD) energy-adjacent beverages – yerba mate, guayusa teas and cold-brew nitro cans with added adaptogens.
The logic is simple: if customers want productivity, coffee brands can deliver it with more than coffee.
“It’s inevitable that the big brands such as Starbucks will bring products into the food-to-go space so that they can benefit from this massive market opportunity,” says Karen. “Having Costa coffee as an element of the Tesco Meal Deal is a game changer for them both – adding massive value to the Tesco Meal Deal, and new customers for Costa.”
In Asia – now the fastest-growing coffee region – energy drinks are growing at equal or faster speed, with 36% of market growth originating from the Asia-Pacific region. Japan’s long-standing “energy jelly” market and South Korea’s vitamin-infused drinks are being joined by new caffeine formats aimed at office workers and students. In China, from 2019 to 2024, functional drinks were reportedly the fastest-growing category in China’s soft drinks category, and among functional drinks, energy drinks accounted for about 70%.
The era of coffee as the productivity beverage has now evolved into the era of energy product diversity – a never-ending portfolio of caffeine or energy-giving products.
“Caffeinated productivity is shifting from one-size-fits-all stimulation to intentional performance,” says Kyle. “Consumers want energy plus something else – focus, calm, hydration or satiety – and brands are responding by moving into RTD and ‘functional refresher’ formats that match how people actually consume caffeine today.”
Coffee brands are adapting because they cannot afford not to. As consumer loyalties fragment, a single beverage category is no longer enough to protect long-term growth – at least for those catering to anything more than a niche crowd.
The return of productivity – or the evolution of it?
Curiously, despite cultural chatter about anti-hustle sentiment, it appears that the underlying demand for productivity enhancers isn’t going anywhere. If anything, economic pressures are tightening.
Burnout is widespread. One 2023 Gallup report estimates that 52% of US and Canada workers report feeling stressed much of the day – compared with Europe, where stress is slightly lower at 39%, but still high – while stress is similarly high in East Asia, at 52%. Globally, burnout and stress are reportedly most acute among younger workers and those in fully remote or hybrid roles.
Younger workers face precarious jobs, record rents and relentless digital labour. In this environment, caffeine becomes not just a beverage choice, but an economic coping mechanism.
The pandemic also shifted expectations. Working from home blurred the boundaries between rest and labour. Gig work, flexible hours and micro-shifted productivity rhythms created a need for “targeted energy” – a burst of focus at 2pm, or a late-night jolt before a deadline.
“Younger generations are far more protective of work–life balance, so I’m not sure caffeine is even framed as a ‘productivity tool’ anymore – that feels like an 80s idea,” says Karen. “What I see instead is polarisation: one group chasing craft, flavour and small-farm coffee, and another focused on performance and energy for things like gaming or sport. Coffee still has huge potential to serve both, but in very different ways.”
Coffee has historically been about ritualised consumption. Energy drinks, on the other hand, are for surges. The market has evolved to accommodate both.
For coffee brands, this constitutes both a threat and an opportunity. Younger consumers risk not inheriting coffee’s cultural centrality. However, with energy drinks and substitutes, they will still inherit its chemical one.
“Energy drinks signal a shift in how people think about productivity, but I don’t see that as a threat to coffee,” says Zohaib. “It’s a signal that coffee needs to evolve in form, not identity. Coffee has always been cultural – about moments and connection. RTD formats simply let that culture travel beyond the café. When coffee becomes clean fuel as well as a social ritual, it doesn’t lose relevance; it gains versatility.”
The line between coffee and energy drinks is blurring further. RTD coffee already competes directly with energy drinks in convenience stores. Zero-sugar cold brew with added L-theanine is functionally identical to many performance drinks, and energy-drink brands are introducing coffee variants. It seems that caffeine is becoming category-agnostic.
“Energy drinks signal a broader shift in how people think about productivity—less ‘work harder,’ more ‘manage your state’ across the day,” says Kyle. “That doesn’t weaken coffee’s cultural role; it expands it. Coffee remains about ritual and connection, but it now sits within a wider ecosystem of formats and benefits. The winners will be brands that protect what coffee has always stood for while modernising how it shows up.”
The future may not be “coffee or energy drinks,” but rather: How many ways can people get the energy they need today? And as coffee brands join the energy arms race, the market is declaring a simple truth: productivity still sells.
Coffee Intelligence
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