NoonBrew is an herbal “superfood” tea that contains 19 different ingredients. The brand claims that their tea can help to provide natural energy, promote healthy digestion and regulate stress and anxiety.
But do the herbal ingredients in NoonBrew have research backing for these effects, or are these just marketing claims? Are the ingredients included at a high enough dose to be effective? Does NoonBrew contain any unhealthy added ingredients? And how do real users rate and describe the effects of NoonBrew?
In this article we’ll answer all of these questions and more as we review the ingredients in NoonBrew based on medical studies to give our take on whether the tea is actually healthy and likely to promote the stated health effects or not.
We’ll also share customer reviews of NoonBrew.
Ingredient Analysis
Many of the herbal ingredients in NoonBrew have been studied in medical research and shown to have positive health effects.
Ginger was shown in a meta-study published in the Food Science & Nutrition journal to reduce gastrointestinal issues and aid digestion.
Ashwagandha was shown to have stress-relieving properties in a 2022 medical review.
Lemon balm is one of the most well-studied herbal compounds for anxiety reduction. A medical review published in the Phytotherapy Research journal analyzed data from clinical trials and found that lemon balm significantly reduced both anxiety and depression scores.
Lion’s mane is a mushroom that was shown in a 2019 clinical trial to significantly improve cognitive function, including an improvement in calculation ability of 5%.
Cordyceps is another mushroom ingredient that’s clinically shown to have athletic performance benefits, as we documented in our MUD WTR reviews article on another tea that’s marketed as a healthy coffee alternative.
Maca is a questionable ingredient inclusion in raw form, because it’s an indigestible starch. We only recommend using gelatinized maca, because raw maca can cause digestive irritation (just like taking raw potato powder could).
Citric acid is the only additive ingredient in this formulation that we consider questionable from a health perspective. It’s a preservative and flavoring agent shown in a medical review published in the Toxicology Reports journal to cause significant inflammation in a small subset of individuals.
Overall there are a number of ingredients in NoonBrew tea that have proven health effects.
We Tried NoonBrew Ourselves
One of our product testers Dr. Aly Goldstein tried NoonBrew for a month. Here's her experience:
Product experience was great. The package is relatively small so it didn’t take up too much space on the counter or in my pantry, easy to open, and easy to measure.
It always mixed in very easily. No chunks or powder at the bottom.
As someone who is sensitive to flavors and usually avoids flavored powder mixes, I liked the taste of Noonbrew. It felt like drinking an incredibly subtle tea. While it did have a muted oolong flavor, there was absolutely no overpowering flavor, which I think made it easier to drink everyday.
I definitely did get a subtle energy boost throughout the afternoon when drinking Noonbrew. I liked how the energy boost came on gradually and wore off gradually.
What I appreciated most was the gradual onset and decline of energy, unlike the more intense spikes and crashes I typically get with something like an afternoon espresso. I also did not get a headache after drinking Noonbrew, which usually happens when I drink any form of caffeine in the afternoons.
Overall, it seems like the Noonbrew mixture of green tea with all the other beneficial ingredients (targeting digestion/gut health, immunity etc) did not lead to sleep issues.
I do also wonder if Noonbrew helped my immune system - it’s hard to be certain, but I was trying this during a season when many people around me were getting colds and various illnesses and I never got sick.
I noticed that after the first few days of drinking it around 2pm I was getting tired later than usual and waking up earlier than usual. I started to drink Noonbrew slightly earlier in the afternoon (between noon-1pm) and then didn’t have any more impact on my sleep.
Overall, I would rate this product 9/10 and would purchase it again.
We are big tea drinkers in my house, and I really like that the Noonbrew offers not only tea but a whole host of other adaptogen and "super food" ingredients.
Is NoonBrew Underdosed?
The problem with including 19 different ingredients in an herbal tea blend is that each individual ingredient may be included at too low of a dose to have any proven health effects.
Remember the meta-study proving ginger to be effective for digestion that we cited in the previous section? The lowest ginger dose used in any of the trials was 1,000 milligrams (mg). The average ingredient dose in NoonBrew’s “Super Food Proprietary Blend” is only 81.25, or less than 10% of what appears to be the minimally effective dose of ginger as a digestive aid.
The same goes for ashwagandha. The medical review that we cited on its stress-relieving properties stated an effective dosing range of 300-600 mg, while the average ingredient dose in NoonBrew’s “Adaptogen Proprietary Blend” is only 50 mg.
Here’s another example. The effective dosing range of astragalus for therapeutic benefit is between 9,000 mg and 30,000 mg daily according to WebMD. This is, at minimum, 180x of a higher dose than the average ingredient dose in the NoonBrew prop blend.
There’s nothing wrong with using herbal tea that contains low doses of a wide number of ingredients. Each herbal ingredient still has phytonutrients that can promote better health, we just disagree with the company making any specific health claims given these low individual doses.
Here’s another interesting way to show how low of a dose NoonBrew’s active ingredients are.
One teaspoon is 4,100 mg according to NoonBrew’s Supplement Facts label. The average ingredient dose in NoonBrew’s Adaptogen Proprietary Blend is 50 mg. This means that the average ingredient dose in this blend is barely over 1% of one teaspoon worth of matter.
We are unable to identify any active ingredients in this product that we consider likely to be effective for any specific health outcome, and we find it highly strange that the active ingredients have a total ingredient dose that’s so much lower than the inactive ingredients (1 gram vs. 3.1 grams).
Real People Try NoonBrew
NoonBrew is sold on Amazon which is a more objective resource for customer reviews than a brand’s website in our opinion.
The tea has been reviewed over 350 times with an average review rating of 4 out of 5 stars.
The top positive review comes from a user named “DJ” who left a strange review saying that the product tasted good but made them throw up (perhaps due to the raw maca):
“The taste was better than expected, drank it hot with a little lemon. Within 15 minutes of drinking i was felling very nauseous and actually threw up!”
The top negative review is written by a user named “Linda S.” who dislikes the taste and who also mentions nausea as a side effect:
“I was really looking forward to this product as I rely on coffee in the afternoon to "pick me up." The taste of this was really awful. I had to chew gum to get the terrible taste out of my mouth. I got a headache (which I rarely get) about 5 minutes after drinking it. I actually couldn't finish the entire 8 ounces, because I became nauseated.”
A TikTok user named Danielle shared a full day of eating video that included a favorable review of NoonBrew:
@danielleajeto caffeine with no jitters yes pls @noonbrew #fdoe ♬ Rihanna Wild Thoughts Ft. Bryson K D Remix - Kevindaveprod
Will NoonBrew Tea Cause Side Effects?
NoonBrew does not appear to have been studied in any clinical trials, so it’s impossible to say for certain whether or not it will cause side effects. However, we can make an educated guess based on its active ingredients.
We do not consider NoonBrew likely to cause side effects. All of its active ingredients are safe, well-studied herbal ingredients. Maca is the only ingredient we’re slightly concerned about because raw maca can cause digestive upset, but given the low dose we don’t consider it much of an issue.
Citric acid may cause inflammatory effects in a small percentage of the population, but for the average consumer, we don’t believe this tea blend is likely to cause any adverse effects.
Our Clean Tea Picks
Pique is the tea brand we recommend, because it includes high-quality ingredients, no questionable additives, and is more affordable than NoonBrew.
NoonBrew costs $48 for 30 servings, or $1.60 per serving.
Pique Japanese Sencha Green Tea costs $16 for 14 servings, or $1.14 per serving. Its only ingredient is organic green tea and it's free of any questionable additives like citric acid. A medical review found that green tea helps promote a healthy body weight, to promote healthy blood pressure levels and to have “neuroprotective power.”
Pique Hibiscus Beauty Elixir is our top pick for consumers who prefer herbal tea. It costs $1.14 per serving like the green tea, and its only ingredients are organic hibiscus, organic mint and organic licorice root. Hibiscus was shown in a medical review published in the Molecules journal to have a potentially anti-aging effect due to its antioxidant properties and its ability to stimulate collagen production.
