Bespoke functional coffee and tea manufacturing

Mushroom, protein and collagen coffees, matcha lattes and teas

At our Leicester facility, which is ISO 9001, HACCP and GMP certified by BSI, we develop and make private label coffee, tea and matcha for premium wellness brands. We make mushroom, protein and collagen coffees, focus blends with L-theanine, matcha lattes and functional teas, blending instant and ground coffee, matcha and tea from approved ingredient suppliers with functional actives and filling tubs, pouches and single-serve sticks. Doses follow the evidence and the claim conditions for each active, and every batch is released with its certificate of analysis. Coffee and tea sit alongside the other supplement formats we manufacture. Your formula is yours.

SPINS reports functional tea growing fastest in collagen variants, up 84%, and vitamin C variants, up 58% (April 2026), and SPINS data show L-theanine as an ingredient up 193% in shelf-stable coffee and hot cocoa (New Hope Network, July 2026).

Ready-to-drink coffee and tea follow our functional drink manufacturing route, single servings our sachet and stick pack manufacturing, and chewable caffeine or matcha formats our gummy manufacturing. Caffeine sets the ceiling: FDA lists 113 to 247 mg of caffeine in a 12 fl oz (355 ml) serving of regular brewed coffee and 37 mg in the same serving of green tea (FDA, 2024), against EFSA's 400 mg a day for healthy adults other than pregnant women (EFSA, 2015).

Why whey curdles, chitin settles and matcha fades

Solubility and mixing

Instant coffee is a dried coffee extract and dissolves completely; whole mushroom and matcha powders do not. Fruiting body powders carry insoluble chitin that settles in the cup, while water extracts dissolve. Matcha is whole ground leaf, so it suspends rather than dissolves, and particle size decides mouthfeel and clumping. Blends that must mix fast need agglomeration, and we test mixability in hot water, cold milk and plant drinks.

Protein in hot coffee

Coffee is mildly acidic, and heat and acidity together make whey proteins unfold and clump, so a standard whey curdles in hot coffee. Hot protein coffees therefore use heat-stable or hydrolysed proteins or milk protein systems balanced for coffee, while iced formats can use whey isolate. Collagen peptides are already hydrolysed and dissolve in hot coffee without curdling.

Matcha colour, catechins and caffeine

Matcha's green comes from chlorophyll, which turns olive-brown with heat, light, oxygen and acid, and its catechins oxidise under the same conditions. Matcha therefore needs nitrogen-flushed, light-proof packs. Matcha and green tea carry caffeine and L-theanine naturally, but the amounts vary by grade and harvest, so we assay each lot and set the label from the results.

Caffeine and L-theanine

Tea pairs caffeine with L-theanine naturally, and human studies have tested the pair: 100 mg of L-theanine with 50 mg of caffeine improved speed and accuracy when switching attention in 27 adults (Owen and colleagues, 2008). Neither ingredient has an authorised claim in the UK or EU, so these studies guide formulation, not labels. In the EU, L-theanine extracted from green tea is not novel only in food supplements, so an EU coffee sold as a food takes its L-theanine from matcha or green tea instead.

Acrylamide

Acrylamide forms when coffee is roasted, as asparagine reacts with sugars in the Maillard reaction. GB and EU acrylamide benchmark levels are 400 µg/kg for roast coffee, 850 µg/kg for instant coffee, 500 µg/kg for coffee substitutes made only from cereals and 4,000 µg/kg for those made only from chicory. Roasting is the supplier's process, so we approve coffee suppliers on their acrylamide data and test finished blends.

Staling, moisture and taste

Roast coffee keeps releasing carbon dioxide after roasting and stales as oxygen reaches its aroma compounds, while instant coffee is hygroscopic and cakes in humid air. Instant blends therefore need low-humidity handling and a pack barrier matched to the product. Our flavour and taste masking work handles the earthy, bitter notes of mushroom extracts and the astringency of green tea.

Fruiting body or mycelium: choosing lion's mane and other bases

Other mushrooms, such as reishi and cordyceps, are checked species by species and part by part before we formulate. Our nootropic supplement manufacturing page covers lion's mane, L-theanine and caffeine in other formats, and protein-rich blends draw on our powder and drink mix manufacturing.

Blending private label coffee and tea to a uniform dose

Development comes first. Bench blends are made up the way customers drink them and judged by blind tasting panels for flavour, bitterness and mouthfeel; the lead blend goes into stability in its final pack, tracking aroma, colour, moisture and actives; and a pilot batch proves blend uniformity before the first production run. Each stage leaves a record your brand keeps.

The steps below are the process a functional coffee or tea blend needs, and our HACCP study for each product type, reviewed annually, sets its critical control points.

1. Approve and receive. Every material comes from a supplier approved before first use and reviewed each year, with its certificate of analysis checked against our specification. For EU-bound coffee and cocoa, we collect the origin and geolocation data your EU importer needs for its due diligence statement.
2. Weigh and dispense. Materials are weighed against the batch record under our allergen management plan, with yellow colour coding for allergens such as milk.
3. Sieve and premix. L-theanine, vitamins, extracts and flavours are premixed so micro-ingredients spread evenly through the bulk.
4. Blend. The batch blends for its validated time at low humidity, and uniformity is checked by assaying caffeine and actives across the blend.
5. Fill and flush. Powder is filled by weight into tubs, pouches or sticks, with nitrogen flushing for matcha and oxygen-sensitive blends.
6. Seal and label. Packs are sealed and coded, and label verification on every batch is our critical control point, CCP-01.
7. Retain and release. We keep three retained samples per batch for shelf life plus one year, and quality control releases every batch against its specification.

A full mock recall, forward and backward with mass balance, runs in seconds.

Mushroom glucans, acrylamide and ochratoxin in the test panel

Every batch is tested by accredited partner laboratories (ISO/IEC 17025), and batch testing is part of every order. Nothing is dispatched without quality control sign-off. Identity matters in this category: when 30 lion's mane supplements sold in the EU and UK were tested at Munster Technological University, more than half failed to meet their own label claims (Vitafoods Insights, July 2026). Our testing and batch release page explains each method.

With every order you receive a certificate of analysis for each batch and its batch release confirmation. Development adds the formula, the specification, stability data, acrylamide results for roasted ingredients, origin data for EU-bound coffee and cocoa, and a label and claims review for each market.

Our credentials: ISO 9001, HACCP and GMP certified by BSI, and FDA registered. BRCGS implementation under way, certification expected in early 2027.

One-way valves, nitrogen and light-proof tins

Coffee and tea lose aroma to oxygen, light and moisture, so the pack is part of the formula. Ground coffee goes into barrier pouches with one-way valves that let carbon dioxide out; instant and functional blends into tubs or pouches with nitrogen flushing; and matcha into light-proof tins or foil pouches. Sticks are formed and sealed from barrier film, seal strength is checked through the run, residual oxygen is checked in nitrogen-flushed packs, and every pack carries its batch code and best before date. As of October 2026, two adopted EU rules shape the formats:

• Compostable bags and units: from 12 February 2028, permeable tea and coffee bags and soft single-serve units disposed of with the product must be compostable in industrial facilities.
• Recycled content: from 2030, contact-sensitive plastic packaging needs 30% recycled content for PET and 10% for other plastics.

Coffee names, caffeine wording and EU deforestation rules

The rules below are as of October 2026.

Caffeine and product names

UK and EU drinks above 150 mg of caffeine per litre carry "High caffeine content. Not recommended for children or pregnant or breast-feeding women", unless they are based on coffee or tea and the name includes "coffee" or "tea"; the rule also covers dried products once made up. A matcha drink above the threshold therefore carries "tea" in its name or takes the statement. Coffee names are regulated too: in the UK and the EU, "decaffeinated" coffee extract may contain no more than 0.3% anhydrous caffeine in its coffee-based dry matter.

United Kingdom

The EU's green tea extract restriction does not apply in Great Britain, though it applies in Northern Ireland. Sweetened milk-based ready-to-drink coffees are due to enter the Soft Drinks Industry Levy in 2028 under draft legislation, so we design them below 4.5 g of total sugar per 100 ml.

European Union

The EU Deforestation Regulation applies to roasted and green coffee and cocoa products from 30 December 2026, with later dates for micro and small operators and for instant coffee extracts. The business that first places the product on the EU market files a due diligence statement with the geolocation of the farms, so we collect that data from our coffee and cocoa suppliers and confirm each product's customs code with your importer. Foods with green tea extracts must give less than 800 mg of EGCG per daily portion, with label warnings.

United States

A product sold as coffee or tea is a conventional food, because a dietary supplement cannot be represented as a conventional food. Its ingredients must be GRAS or approved food additives, and FDA has answered several L-theanine GRAS notices with no questions. Structure/function claims on a food must derive from nutritive value, with no notification or disclaimer. We are an FDA registered food facility for dietary supplements. For a US coffee or tea sold as a food, we add the matching food categories to our registration before the first order, and for a shelf-stable ready-to-drink coffee or tea that is acidified or low-acid we also register as a food canning establishment and file its scheduled process. California exempts chemicals created by roasting coffee beans or brewing coffee from Proposition 65 warnings, but not roasted chicory or grains, so chicory and grain blends are tested for acrylamide before a US launch.

We use authorised claims only, with their conditions: "Vitamin C contributes to normal collagen formation for the normal function of skin" suits collagen coffee, and "Protein contributes to a growth in muscle mass" needs at least 12% of energy from protein. No mushroom claim is authorised in the UK or EU. We track these rules on our supplement regulation watch. Research and development is a paid stage that can be included with an order of the right size. When your coffee or tea is ready to brief, Start your project.

References: Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 on deforestation-free products, as amended by Regulation (EU) 2025/2650 and Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/2102 (2026); Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/2158 on acrylamide (2017); Commission Regulation (EU) 2022/2340 on green tea extracts (2022); Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 on food information to consumers (2011); Directive 1999/4/EC on coffee extracts and chicory extracts (1999); Owen and colleagues, Nutritional Neuroscience (2008); USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, Coffee: World Markets and Trade (2026); 21 CFR Parts 108, 113 and 114 (2026).