Beetroot and Coffee: Can You Take Them Together?

Beetroot and coffee work through different pathways — beetroot's dietary nitrate widens blood vessels via nitric oxide, coffee's caffeine acts on the central nervous system — so taking both isn't a conflict. A 2024 meta-analysis of 6 trials found that combining caffeine and nitrate didn't add anything beyond either one alone for exercise performance, heart rate or oxygen uptake.

Does coffee affect beetroot's nitrate?

Coffee and beetroot haven't been shown to interfere with each other. They're absorbed and used by the body through separate mechanisms: nitrate from beetroot is converted to nitrite and then nitric oxide by bacteria in the mouth and gut, while caffeine is metabolized mainly by the liver. No trial identified for this page tested whether coffee changes how much nitrate a beetroot capsule delivers.

What the combined-use research found

A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis pooled 6 randomized trials (95 people total) that tested caffeine and dietary nitrate together against either substance alone. The result: combining them didn't improve time-trial performance over caffeine alone or over nitrate alone, and it didn't change heart rate or oxygen uptake during exercise compared with either one by itself. The authors' conclusion was that co-supplementation offered no further benefit over taking either one on its own. That's the most direct evidence available on stacking the two, and it's a null result, not a synergy.

Beetroot's own research is almost entirely about dietary nitrate on its own, at doses from concentrated juice — a 2025 umbrella review of 15 meta-analyses found nitrate doses of 515-1,017 mg a day produced a negligible-to-small effect on athletic performance. See beetroot benefits: what the research does and doesn't show for the full picture. Coffee wasn't part of that research.

Is "beetroot coffee" the same thing?

No. Roasted, ground beetroot is sold as a caffeine-free coffee substitute — a different food product made by roasting the root, not a nitrate supplement, and not what the trials above tested. If you're searching for that as a coffee alternative, it's a taste and lifestyle choice rather than something with its own supplement research behind it. The research on this page is about dietary nitrate (from juice or powder) alongside caffeinated coffee, not about beetroot brewed as a coffee substitute.

Our beetroot capsule

Electric Tiger Beetroot is 1300 mg of whole organic beetroot powder per two-capsule serving, one ingredient, as low as $14.39 a bottle on subscription. It's a powder capsule, not the concentrated juice used in most of the performance research above — see beetroot forms compared for what that difference means for dose.

Questions people ask

Can I take beetroot supplements with my morning coffee?

Nothing in the research reviewed here found a problem with taking both. They haven't been shown to interact, and the trials that combined them tested performance outcomes, not safety concerns.

Does caffeine cancel out beetroot's effects?

No trial found caffeine blocking or reducing what nitrate does. The 2024 meta-analysis found the combination simply didn't add a further benefit over either one alone — not that caffeine worked against nitrate.

Should I take beetroot instead of coffee for energy?

They're not interchangeable. Coffee's caffeine is a stimulant with well-documented alertness effects; beetroot's research is about nitrate and blood flow, mostly studied for physical performance rather than alertness. See how much beetroot should you take a day for beetroot's own dosing research.

Related reading: beetroot benefits: what the research does and doesn't show, how much beetroot should you take a day, and best time to take beetroot.