Coffee vs Energy Drinks: Why Gen Z Is Swapping Celsius for Cold Brew

If your study table has a Celsius can on one side and a half-finished iced coffee on the other, you already know this debate. The coffee vs energy drinks question has become a real one for Gen Z across the US and Canada, where caffeine fuels everything from 8 a.m. classes to late-night shifts. Energy drinks won the first round with bright cans and zero-sugar promises. Now a growing number of young drinkers are coming back to coffee through something much older than any can: cold brew, a slow-steeped method first recorded in 17th-century Kyoto, Japan.

Cold brew reached American kitchens in 1964, when Todd Simpson came home from Peru and invented the Toddy brewer. It went mainstream in 2015, when Starbucks rolled out cold brew nationwide, and nitro cold brew followed in select stores a year later. Since then, it has become the go-to order for a generation that likes its coffee cold. Weekly cold brew drinking among American adults has jumped 31% since 2025, according to the National Coffee Association. Here’s what’s driving the shift, and how cold brew really compares to a can of Celsius.

Why Gen Z Is Rethinking the Energy Drink Habit

Energy drinks are still a huge business, and plenty of young people grab one every day. But the questions around them keep getting louder. For a generation that reads labels and shares everything online, a few concerns keep coming up.

The Health Questions Keep Coming

• Side effects are common: In a University of Waterloo survey of young Canadians aged 12 to 24, more than half of those who had ever tried an energy drink reported a side effect such as a racing heart or nausea.
• Blood pressure spikes: A Mayo Clinic study found that blood pressure rose about 6% after a single 16 oz energy drink, compared with 1% after a placebo.
• It’s not only the caffeine: The Waterloo researchers noted that energy drinks appear riskier than coffee. They pointed to the extra ingredients and the way people drink them, such as alongside workouts or alcohol.

The Label Is Long

• Cold brew is two ingredients: Coffee and water. Anything else is up to you.
• Energy drinks are a blend: A can of Celsius lists taurine, guarana seed extract, caffeine anhydrous, glucuronolactone, ginger root extract, and green tea extract, plus sucralose and added vitamins.
• Blends hide the details: These ingredients sit inside a proprietary blend, so the label doesn’t show how much of each one you’re getting.

A Daily Can Adds Up

• Cost: One can a day becomes a real line item in a student budget. A single batch of homemade cold brew lasts several days.
• Control: With cold brew, you choose the strength, the sweetness, and the milk. With a can, what’s inside is what you get.

Celsius vs Cold Brew: How They’re Made and How They Differ

On paper, the two drinks deliver a similar amount of caffeine. The difference is in how they get there.

How Celsius Is Made

Celsius starts with carbonated filtered water and citric acid. The company then adds its MetaPlus blend (guarana, green tea extract, ginger, taurine, and added caffeine), sweetens the drink with sucralose, and adds seven vitamins. A standard 12 oz can carries 200 mg of caffeine with zero sugar.

How Cold Brew Is Made

Cold brew uses coarsely ground coffee steeped in cold or room-temperature water for 12 to 24 hours, then strained. Starbucks steeps its cold brew for 20 hours. Because no heat is involved, fewer of the bitter, acidic compounds end up in the cup, and the coffee tastes smoother and often a little chocolatey. Nitro cold brew takes the same coffee and infuses it with nitrogen for a creamy, almost foamy texture.

Where They Really Differ

• Caffeine source: Celsius combines added caffeine with plant extracts. Cold brew’s caffeine comes from the coffee bean itself.
• Taste: Celsius is sparkling and fruity. Cold brew is smooth, mellow, and easy to flavor.
• Flexibility: You can’t adjust a can. Cold brew can be made stronger, lighter, sweeter, or creamier.
• Where you get it: Celsius comes from the cooler at the gas station. Cold brew can come from a café or from a jar in your own fridge.

Caffeine and Nutrition: Celsius vs Cold Brew

Black cold brew and Celsius are both close to zero calories. The bigger numbers to watch are caffeine and whatever you add to your coffee.

For most adults, the FDA cites 400 mg of caffeine a day as an amount not generally linked to negative effects. One Celsius HEAT uses up three-quarters of that before lunch.

Starbucks Cold Brew caffeine by size

Why Cold Brew Clicks With Gen Z

Gen Z didn’t grow up with a pot of hot coffee on the counter. Their coffee habits started at the café counter and on social feeds, and that shows in how they drink it.

Cold Is the Default

• First cups are iced: Nestlé says half of Gen Z coffee drinkers in North America had their first-ever cup cold, not hot.
• Hot coffee is an older habit: Only 43% of Gen Z adults prefer their coffee hot, compared with 89% of adults over 60.

Built for Customizing

• Creamer is standard: About 85% of Gen Z coffee fans add creamer, compared with 70% of coffee drinkers overall.
• Endless combinations: Oat milk, cold foam, brown sugar, vanilla, or caramel let you make a drink that feels like yours. An energy drink can’t do that.

Made for Slow Sipping

• It lasts: An iced cold brew can stretch through a lecture, a shift, or a study session. Many younger drinkers order iced coffee for exactly this reason.
• A smoother lift: You sip a big iced coffee over an hour or two instead of finishing a can in a few minutes. That pace changes how the caffeine feels.

Energy Drinks Still Have Plenty of Fans

Not everyone is putting the can down. Teens still prefer energy drinks over coffee as their go-to caffeine. In one recent survey, 45% picked energy drinks and 28% picked coffee. The category as a whole brings in close to $25 billion a year in the US.

Celsius’s parent company now holds about a fifth of the US energy drink market. Most of its growth, though, is coming from Alani Nu, whose sales doubled in early 2026. The Celsius brand itself grew just 6%.

People who move the other way, from coffee to energy drinks, usually say they want more caffeine per serving and the grab-and-go convenience of a can. So this isn’t a clean break. More young drinkers are simply realizing that cold brew can match a can on caffeine and win on simplicity.

How to Make Cold Brew at Home

Cold brew is one of the easiest coffees to make well. It needs no special machine, just time.

What You’ll Need

• 1 cup coarsely ground coffee
• 4 cups cold filtered water
• A large jar or pitcher with a lid
• A fine-mesh strainer plus a paper coffee filter or cheesecloth

No cold brew maker? A mason jar and a paper filter work fine. A French press also works: steep the coffee in it, then press the plunger down slowly.

Steps

1. Grind your beans coarse, about the texture of coarse sea salt.
2. Add the grounds and water to your jar and stir until all the grounds are wet.
3. Cover and steep for 12 to 18 hours at room temperature, or up to 24 hours in the fridge.
4. Strain through the mesh strainer, then strain again through the paper filter or cheesecloth to catch the fine particles.
5. You now have concentrate. Mix it 1:1 with water or milk and pour over ice.
6. Store the concentrate in the fridge and use it within about a week.

Variation: Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew

Whisk or froth 2 tablespoons of heavy cream, 1 tablespoon of milk, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla syrup until slightly thick. Pour it over a glass of iced cold brew and let it swirl in. For a lighter version, use oat milk with a pinch of cinnamon.

Tips for Getting It Right

• Pick the right roast: Medium to medium-dark roasts with chocolate or nutty notes shine in cold brew. Bright, fruity light roasts can taste flat.
• Don’t over-steep: Past about 24 hours, cold brew can turn bitter and woody.
• Grind fresh: Whole beans ground right before brewing give you a sweeter, fuller cup.
• Use good water: Filtered water makes a noticeable difference in a drink that’s mostly water.

The beans matter more than anything else here. Lovers Coffee makes it easy to explore roasts from different origins and find one that tastes great cold.

Trading the Can for the Cup

The coffee vs energy drinks debate isn’t really about caffeine, since a cold brew and a can of Celsius land in nearly the same place. It comes down to everything else in the glass. Energy drinks bring convenience and bright flavors, along with a long ingredient list and some open health questions. Cold brew brings coffee and water, a smoother taste, and as much creativity as you want to add. That’s why more Gen Z drinkers are giving their fridge door to a jar of cold brew instead of a stack of cans, and why the trend looks set to keep growing.

If you want more coffee information, recipes, and seasonal coffee trends, make sure to check our blog daily and explore the Lovers.coffee marketplace for everything you need to make your moments even sweeter.