Coffee is a powerful tool — it wakes you up, keeps you energized throughout the day, and, importantly for some, helps you poop. Many of us use this to our advantage, brewing a cup during those uncomfortable moments of constipation.
In this guide, we’ll dive into the science behind why coffee helps with constipation and look at the best types of coffee for constipation…
What’s the Best Coffee for Constipation?
Several elements in coffee can stimulate bowel movements. Caffeine is believed to be the main element in coffee that “helps you poop.” With this in mind, coffee that’s high in caffeine may be more useful to those suffering from constipation.
Here’s what to look for when searching for coffee to relieve constipation:
- Coffee Type — Robusta coffee contains around twice the amount of caffeine as arabica beans. Caffeine helps promote bowel movements so opting for a 100% robusta coffee or a blend may be better for constipation than 100% arabica.
- Brewing Method — If you want to use coffee to promote bowel movements, brew a strong coffee. Brewing a strong robusta and arabica blend using an espresso machine, moka pot, or Aeropress blends may be the best choice for constipation.
- Additives — Most people find strong black coffee to be most effective at relieving constipation. Avoid adding sugar or milk if your sole purpose of drinking the coffee is to induce a bowel movement.
- Instant Coffee — Although brewing coffee using whole beans produces a better-tasting cup, instant espresso is a quick way to make a bowel-stimulating coffee when you need it most.
How Coffee Affects the Ways We Poop
It’s long been a trope in the media and dad jokes alike — taking that first sip of coffee in the morning can tend to get things moving along in your digestive tract. So, why does coffee make you poop?
There are a few ways coffee stimulates your digestive system. Let’s break them down:
1. Caffeine

Caffeine is a natural chemical that evolved in many different plants as a bug deterrent. For humans, though, caffeine is a stimulant, which speeds up processes in your body. The most common effect of caffeine is its ability to increase energy, but it can also impact cellular processes in the body.
You may have noticed that a few moments after drinking coffee, your heart and breathing rates increase slightly. These muscle contractions occur throughout the body, including in the peristaltic muscles that push food along your intestines [1,2].
It’s these contractions that stimulate bowel movements after high-caffeine beverages such as coffee are consumed.
2. Bitterness
In addition to caffeine, coffee’s naturally bitter flavor can stimulate digestion. Bitter food has long been prescribed as a digestive aid, but it wasn’t until modern medicine caught up that we realized the traditional remedies had been onto something.
Bitter food and drink stimulate the release of different secretions throughout your whole digestive system. With increased mucus secretions in the digestive tract, your body can process food more effectively, and the “conveyor belt” can move along fully lubricated.
Coffee also contains several hormones, including gastrin and motilin. These hormones stimulate the stomach and gut motility [2]. Gastrin releases gastric acid into your stomach. This helps to break down food, which pushes the conveyor belt of your intestines along a little. Motilin does the same job by prompting your body to move food from the small intestine to the large intestine.
3. The Gastrocolic Reflex
The gastrocolic reflex is another way that coffee can help relieve constipation. This reflex is a natural process by which your digestive system speeds up and slows down during the day. Eating or drinking anything, including coffee, can trigger this response.
This is different from the other triggers mentioned above. Reflexes are entirely nerve-based rather than chemical-based. Essentially, they’re a physical response to a physical stimulus — just like the reflexive kick when a doctor hits a patient's knee with a hammer.
Because several factors can trigger the gastrocolic reflex, it’s tough to say whether coffee triggers it for you. Your morning routine of coffee and breakfast may trigger it. The gastrocolic reflex is typically more active in the morning and is often triggered by the first meal or drink of the day.
Do Coffee Additives Impact Gut Health?
Coffee additives can certainly impact gut health, especially when it comes to constipation and laxative effects.
How Milk Impacts Gut Health
The most common additive to coffee is milk, which can undoubtedly lead to a need to visit the bathroom. This is most commonly seen in those with lactose sensitivities, where ingesting lactose typically manifests symptoms such as bloating, diarrhea, and nausea.
Condensed milk is another common addition to coffee, particularly in Vietnamese coffee. This beverage is made from dairy milk, which would similarly impact those with lactose intolerance. If you drink a lot of condensed milk, the sugar might negatively affect your gut bacteria, but adding a little to your coffee is okay in moderation.
How Sugar Impacts Gut Health
Eating or drinking a lot of sugar has its own problems. Sugar is rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream, where it can be either used as energy or converted and stored as fat. Aside from potential weight gain, sugar can also impact your gut bacteria when consumed in excess.
Bacteria are often keen to digest sugar, so consuming a lot can lead to the overpopulation of one certain type of bacteria in your gut relative to others. In time, this can be negative to the gut biome. To achieve a good balance of different gut bacteria, make sure you eat sugar in moderation and maintain a balanced diet.
How Sweeteners Impact Gut Health
Interestingly, another coffee additive can have a laxative effect — artificial sweeteners. Certain types of artificial sweeteners are known as polyols. When eaten in large quantities, polyols such as sorbitol and xylitol can have a laxative effect.
However, this isn’t the case for all sweeteners. Products using natural sweeteners such as monk fruit extract avoid this issue, and most people find those sweeteners a little easier to digest.
How to Choose the Best Coffee for Constipation

Tracking down the best coffee for constipation can be tricky since there are a lot of options out there. Let’s discuss how different coffee options may be helpful to you.
1. Coffee Bean Type
There are many different types of coffee beans from a range of species in the Coffea genus. The two main types are Coffea arabica (arabica coffee) and Coffea robusta (robusta coffee).
A) Robusta
The main benefit that robusta has when considering your options to aid constipation relief is that it’s packed with caffeine. On average, robusta coffee beans contain twice as much caffeine as arabica beans.
Caffeine is known to improve gut motility, which means that getting a higher dose with some robusta coffee could help alleviate symptoms of constipation.
B) Arabica
While arabica does contain less caffeine than robusta on average, it’s more popular than robusta. Try our high-quality arabica coffee, known for its smooth, sweet, and complex flavor compared to robusta coffee. It also tends to be more aromatic.
These identifiable aromas and flavors could trigger the gastrocolic reflex in someone suffering from constipation. This reflex is the reason most people poop at the same time every day — they’ve built a routine that includes a certain stimulus. For many people, that stimulus is coffee, hence why it might work well to trigger the gastrocolic reflex.
C) Blends
Coffee blends are a wonderful way to get many different flavors and aromas into one cup. They can also be a great way to experience the benefits of both arabica and robusta beans at once.
Robusta coffee typically brings in rich, dark, and earthy notes, which are supplemented by the citrus aromas of arabica coffee, resulting in an exquisite blend.
The more palatable flavor and aroma of arabica and the high caffeine content of robusta create a brew that’s easy to drink and fast-acting on the bowels.
2. Roast Level
Roasting coffee to different degrees can have a huge impact on the flavor, so let’s talk about how the roast might impact someone with constipation.
- Light Roast— A light roast coffee typically contains a lot of natural plant chemicals, bringing a light, citrus flavor and aroma to the cup. Though this is a delicious style of coffee, there’s nothing too specific that might aid constipation outside of the base caffeine levels.
- Medium Roast — A medium roast coffee will start to introduce bitter flavors to the brew. This can lead to the production of more digestive juices, which may help to push the conveyor belt along a little.
- Dark Roast — Dark roast coffee tends to have a very dark and earthy flavor profile, often boasting bitterness, which creates a rich body in your cup. This bitterness is sure to trigger the release of some hormones in your digestive system, which can work together to alleviate the symptoms of constipation.
- Butter Roasted — Roasting coffee with butter is a long-standing tradition in Vietnam; it’s done to add flavor to the final brew. There is some evidence that fatty food can lead to diarrhea in some, but there’s unlikely enough fat in your final brew to cause much of a change either way.
3. Growing Practices
Good growing practices ensure that the final crop is of great quality.
When growing coffee organically, farmers don't use chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Although organic coffee isn't "better" for constipation than inorganic coffee it is healthier. Organic coffee beans contain fewer toxins that could potentially harm your gut.
4. Certified Mold-Free
While most produce is washed and processed to ensure sterility before it’s shipped around the world, mycotoxin-producing molds can fester on coffee beans. These mycotoxins could negatively impact your health, including gut health.
To ensure mycotoxins don’t impact your gut health, ensure you track down a coffee that’s certified mold-free. Reputable companies will conduct regular testing to ensure that your coffee is safe and clean.
5. High Caffeine Content
If you’re looking for a coffee that’s packed with caffeine to give you a speedy solution for constipation, then opt for a 100% robusta such as the HaNoi Coffee. Robusta contains twice the amount of caffeine as arabica — good news if you want to get your digestive system moving.
Instant espresso could also be a good choice. Instant espresso contains around twice as much caffeine as regular coffee, meaning that it can pack a punch to boost your gut motility.
Best Coffee for Constipation FAQs

Now that we’ve spoken about the key information to bear in mind when considering coffee for constipation, let’s run through some FAQs.
1. What’s the Best Coffee for Constipation?
You’ll want to choose a high-caffeine blend, like a robusta bean coffee. Robusta has around twice as much caffeine as arabica coffee. Caffeine can have stimulant effects on the digestive system, meaning that a strong coffee like Cafely BanMe can increase the need to poop.
2. What Is the Best Drink to Soften Stools?
When discussing hard or soft stools, we generally talk about how hydrated a stool is. If a stool is more hydrated, it’s typically easier to pass. Therefore, opting for water or fruit juice can be a great choice. For a hot drink, you could try non-caffeinated teas, such as mint or rooibos.
3. Is Hot or Cold Coffee Better for Constipation?
While both drinks contain caffeine that triggers stomach motility, a hot drink can be a more effective form of constipation relief. The warmth of the liquid can relax muscles in and around your stomach, similar to how a hot water bottle may be used.
4. Can Coffee Have a Detrimental Effect When Constipated?
Sometimes, yes. Coffee acts as a mild diuretic, meaning drinking it will dehydrate you overall. If you’re dehydrated, your stools will typically be harder, and your GI system may be working less effectively. For best results, have a glass of water before or with your cup of coffee.
5. What Other Beverages Can Soothe Constipation?
Any beverage that contains caffeine can soothe constipation, as caffeine can increase gut motility. Some people also find that probiotic drinks can aid digestion, leading to a knock-on effect where, essentially, the “conveyor belt” of your stomach proceeds as normal, soothing symptoms of constipation.
References:
- Nehlig, A. (2022). Effects of Coffee on the Gastrointestinal Tract: a Narrative Review and Literature Update. Nutrients, 14(2), 399.
- Iriondo-DeHond, A., Uranga, J. A., del Castillo, M. D., & Abalo, R. (2020). Effects of Coffee and Its Components on the Gastrointestinal Tract and the Brain-Gut Axis. Nutrients, 13(1).
- The Short-Term Effects of Olive Oil and Flaxseed Oil for the Treatment of Constipation in Hemodialysis Patients, Ramos, Christiane Ishikawa et al. Journal of Renal Nutrition, Volume 25, Issue 1, 50 - 56
- Bove, A., Bellini, M., Battaglia, E., Bocchini, R., Gambaccini, D., Bove, V., Pucciani, F., Altomare, D. F., Dodi, G., Sciaudone, G., Falletto, E., & Piloni, V. (2012). Consensus statement AIGO/SICCR diagnosis and treatment of chronic constipation and obstructed defecation (part II: treatment). World journal of gastroenterology, 18(36), 4994–5013.