In the scorching summer of 2026, temperatures in many parts of China have been continuously exceeding 40 degrees Celsius, but the beverage market has not seen the expected peak season. According to reports from mainland media and various industry organizations, traditional beverage sales have sharply declined, with sugary carbonated drinks and iced tea, once popular products, continuing to cool off. Meanwhile, unsweetened tea and electrolyte water are showing strong growth trends, indicating a new wave of reshuffling in the Chinese beverage market.
On July 29th, the topic “40°C Heat, Nobody Wants Cola or Iced Tea” trended on social media, sparking widespread attention.
Across various social media platforms in mainland China, many tobacco and liquor store owners and distributors have complained about the cold sales of beverages this year. Some tobacco and liquor store owners mentioned that they purposely replaced their ice coolers before the peak season to avoid the previous year’s issue of products not being chilled on time. However, this year’s beverage sales have been cold, and the increased electricity cost for the new ice coolers has become a new problem for them.
Reportedly by “First Financial”, the peak summer, traditionally considered a sales golden period, has failed to ignite the passion in the beverage market this year. Data from China’s domestic retail analytics institution “Win Now” shows that beverage sales decreased by 11.8% in the second quarter, which is typically the key stocking period for the industry. Visits to various outlets revealed that the beverage industry is undergoing changes in growth amid the double impact of weather and consumer trends this year.
In a Lawson convenience store in Zhongguancun, Beijing, by 10 PM, there weren’t many empty spaces on the refrigerated shelves in the store. According to the store clerk, beverage sales have not been good this summer. At the same time, during the peak season, the refrigerators would usually be filled with various promotions for beverages; however, this year, there were fewer promotional offers compared to previous years.
Huang Hua, who runs a small supermarket in Linyi, Shandong, stated that beverage sales this summer have been average, with lower sales compared to previous years. While sales of carbonated drinks like cola remained stable, the sales of protein drinks and fruit juice declined. However, popular categories like sports drinks and unsweetened tea managed to maintain growth.
Beverage companies usually complete their investment and terminal displays for the subsequent sales by March each year. The second quarter of the industry data generally shows significant growth but was different this year.
According to monitoring data released by “Win Now”, the overall sales of beverages in the second quarter of 2026 dropped by 11.78% compared to the previous year, with carbonated drinks declining by 12.23%, and instant fruit juice by 14.84%. Only unsweetened ready-to-drink tea and coffee maintained growth.
As sugary carbonated beverages gradually fade, “sugar” has become an unavoidable controversial topic.
Data from the National Health Commission of China shows that the adult diabetes prevalence has reached 11.9%, with a detection rate of 35.2% of pre-diabetes, estimating that hundreds of millions are affected by blood sugar problems.
Consumers are increasingly paying attention to the ingredient lists when purchasing beverages. A survey indicates that 69% of consumers check the ingredients list before buying beverages, actively avoiding high-sugar and high-additive products.
The industry believes that it’s not the entire carbonated beverage market that is declining but the sugary carbonated beverages specifically.
Amid the overall decline in traditional beverages, unsweetened tea has emerged as the biggest beneficiary this year.
Data shows that sales of unsweetened ready-to-drink tea in the second quarter of 2026 increased by 16.1% compared to the previous year. Consumer Insight Research predicts that the market size of unsweetened tea is expected to reach 135.2 billion yuan in China in 2026, accounting for over 50% of the tea beverage market share for the first time, officially becoming a market mainstream.
Currently, East China’s Shulei has a market share of over 75%, becoming the absolute leader in the unsweetened tea market. Traditional beverage brands like Master Kong, Uni-President, Wahaha, and others are also accelerating their deployment of unsweetened products.
Another fast-growing sector is electrolyte water.
The electrolyte water market has rapidly grown from 2.7 billion yuan in 2022 to nearly 20 billion yuan in 2025, and is expected to surpass 33 billion yuan in 2026. Sales through catering channels saw a whopping 159% year-on-year growth in the first quarter, with non-sports consumption accounting for about 75% of the market, gradually becoming a daily hydrating beverage.
In contrast, the once promising Chinese health water has unexpectedly cooled down. Monitoring shows that in the second quarter of 2026, the number of new Chinese health water products decreased significantly from 134 to 49 compared to the same period last year.
Faced with slowing demand, major brands have resorted to price wars.
This summer, the offering of “one yuan exchange purchase” or “extra bottle” has become almost a standard for all mainstream beverage brands. Enterprises like Nongfu Spring, Dongpeng Special Drinks, Master Kong, and Uni-President have all launched large-scale promotional activities, with some products even having up to an 80% winning rate.
However, industry insiders point out that while promotions may stimulate sales in the short term, they have also led the entire industry into a vicious cycle of “no sales without promotions, and no profits with promotions”, further squeezing the survival space for small and medium-sized brands.
Apart from intensifying market competition, new beverage categories are facing successive quality controversies.
In February and May this year, the media twice sent nine products labeled “100% coconut water” for inspection, with results showing that all contained external water, external sugar, and some even contained starch syrup, leading to doubts in the market about the quality of coconut water.
In July, several NFC fruit juice processing factories were also exposed by the media for suspected fraud. Investigations revealed that some products claiming to be “100% freshly squeezed” or “NFC fresh fruit cold-pressed” were mainly made from concentrated pulp, flavorings, and other ingredients, rather than being genuine freshly squeezed fruit juice. Insiders disclosed that many products on the market bearing the slogans “freshly squeezed” or “100% pure fruit juice” differ from real NFC fruit juices.