Cole Hauser does not merely play a man who lives on caffeine and grit. Off camera—and between setups on the Dutton Ranch set—he has been running up the tally for real. In an exclusive conversation with PEOPLE tied to the launch of Free Rein Coffee’s new Protein Coffee Collection, the Yellowstone star made clear there was no real contest among the cast when it came to who drained the most cups.

“I got them whipped for sure”

Asked who led the company in coffee consumption during production, Hauser, 51, did not pause. “Oh yeah. I got them whipped for sure.” His personal baseline is steep: about four cups a day, usually cut off around one in the afternoon—though he admits he could keep going. “I could drink it all day long. It’s my favorite.”

That habit straddles character and brand. Hauser reprises Rip Wheeler opposite Kelly Reilly’s Beth Dutton in the Paramount+ spin-off Dutton Ranch. He also co-owns Free Rein Coffee, which is using the interview moment to push its biggest retail expansion yet: protein coffee in K-Cup-compatible pods and ready-to-drink cold brew, now headed into Walmart.

What Rip and Beth would order

Hauser has the pair’s fictional orders ready.

For Beth, he landed on Branded and Choconela from the Free Rein lineup—“she’s got a little bit of spice to her.” For Rip, the choice stays in the saddle: American Dirt, a blend he ties to the cowboy world the character was “kind of born from.”

It is the kind of bit that brand campaigns live for, but it also fits how Hauser talks about the role: Rip as straightforward, Beth as heat with a sweet edge.

Old-school black coffee meets protein pods

Away from set, the routine starts early. Hauser estimates about three cups on waking. He still calls himself “a little old school” and prefers black coffee, but he is testing Free Rein’s new protein line as training returns after a rest period.

He credits CEO Arlyn Davich and the team for the product while he spent roughly the last nine months buried in work. “They’ve done a wonderful job of putting together a delicious protein coffee mix that we’d hope will kick some ass in the marketplace.” On training days—after recent recovery time—he plans to pair the mix with the gym once the next shipment arrives.

Ocean mornings after a brutal Season 1

The coffee talk sits against a deliberate slowdown. Hauser’s ideal non-filming morning is almost anti-spectacle: wake up at his ocean-side home, stare at the water, watch the birds, let the house come alive with his wife, kids, and five dogs.

That calm follows what he previously described to PEOPLE as a punishing first season. Dutton Ranch production swung from extreme heat to freezing cold and ice storms. “It was just nuts.” By the end of episode nine, he said, everyone was ready to go home, rest, and reset for the next year.

Even so, he called the season “very rewarding in the end” and said he “can’t wait to continue to make Dutton Ranch as good as it can be.”

Season 2, Ben Cavell, and a “bright” next step

Paramount+ renewed Dutton Ranch for a second season in June, with production expected to begin in early 2027. Before slipping back into Rip’s boots, Hauser is prioritizing the breather—and the coffee business.

He is measured about plot but warm about leadership. Incoming showrunner Ben Cavell, he said, is “a very special guy.” After conversations with Cavell, Hauser framed the future as bright “not only for myself, but Beth and Carter and the show in general.” Finn Little’s Carter Green remains part of that triangle. “I think this is going to be a really nice next step.”

Why the caffeine story sticks

Hauser’s interview is partly a product launch and partly a character brand extension. What makes it land for Yellowstone fans is the through-line: Rip Wheeler as the guy who would drink American Dirt without ceremony; Hauser as the actor who actually out-drank the set; Beth as spice in a cup; and a company trying to turn that mythology into protein pods at Walmart.

Season 1 of Dutton Ranch is streaming on Paramount+. Season 2 is on the calendar. Between them, the man who played the ranch’s steadiest enforcer is, by his own account, still first in line at the coffee station—four cups deep, black if he had his way, protein when the gym calls, and already guessing what Beth would order if she walked in beside him.