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China beverages: Is herbal innovation the future?

Herbal and botanical innovation in China's drinks market continues to grow, with ingredients like astragalus root, ginger, and ginseng in the spotlight – and focus shifting far beyond refreshment.

This year, Chinese beverage major Wanglaoji Great Health Industry ramped up international expansion of its herbal-based tea drink Walovi.

At a glance:

• Herbal beverage innovation is gaining ground in China, driven by changing consumer needs.
• Innovation with ingredients like ginger and ginseng are targeting energy and mind-body relief.
• Herbal promise stretches across energy drinks and RTD tea categories.

This year, Chinese beverage major Wanglaoji Great Health Industry ramped up international expansion of its herbal-based tea drink Walovi.

The naturally caffeine-free beverage is made from a blend of herbals, including grass jelly, honeysuckle flower, and licorice root, and is designed to refresh and cool the body.

Football star Erling Haaland recently became the brand's global ambassador as the company works to drive traction far beyond its domestic market, bringing the concept of herbal beverages to an international audience.

Meanwhile, in China, herbal drink shops continue to gain ground, driven by younger consumer interest in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and on-the-go formats for various health needs.

Chains like Tea of Seasons and Zhima Health offer a range of blended herbal beverages, for example, targeting tiredness and energy through to digestion.

Herbal blends for energy

According to Mintel, consumers in China are increasingly turning to herbal beverages for functions beyond traditional refreshment.

“Post-1990s and gen Z consumers, the core of the workforce, are facing increasingly compressed boundaries between work and personal time,” explained Ruyi Xu, senior vice-president of APAC insights at Mintel.

Mintel figures suggest that more than 50% of this population regard fully discretionary leisure time as their scarcest resource. Xu told Ingredients Network this is driving a more “nuanced shift” in herbal beverage demands, from simple anti-fatigue support to broader mind-body relief.

“Cognitive support is gradually replacing the traditional pursuit of quick stimulation, as working consumers increasingly seek long-lasting, steady support that keeps them alert yet calm, enabling more effective recovery of energy and mood in limited downtime,” she said.

“Against this backdrop, drinks are being recast from simple refreshment into productivity tools that help sustain workplace performance.”

According to Mintel's Global New Products Database (GNPD), several high-growth momentum ingredients that fit herbal or botanical positioning are coming through the pipeline in China's energy drinks market – a category valued at RMB 61.9 billion (€7.9 billion) in 2025.

Ingredients like astragalus root, ginger juice, red ginseng extract, and mint are being introduced into new launches across the category.

Non-alcoholic drinks and RTD teas

According to Rika Huang, senior analyst for China insights at Mintel, use of herbals is clearly gaining ground in the country’s beverage market, but not just in the energy category.

“In the period from February 2024 to January 2025, the proportion of non-alcoholic drink launches with medicinal food ingredients rose to 20.2% from 13.6%, reflecting their increasing prevalence and application in beverage innovation,” Huang said.

“While this jump indicates accelerating mainstreaming of medicinal/herbal ingredients in beverage innovation, this growth is not limited to energy drinks and looks at non-alcoholic drinks overall.”

Euromonitor International data supports this, indicating a far bigger market opportunity for herbals in China's ready-to-drink (RTD) tea market, which is forecast to hit volumes of 17.4 million litres in 2028 – around four times more than China's energy drink market.

“Given both the scale of the category and Chinese consumers' long-standing familiarity with tea-based products, brands that can successfully combine credible energy-positioning with tea formats may be particularly well placed to capture consumer interest,” said Catalina de Vera, senior communications executive at Euromonitor International.

“It is also worth noting that tea itself already has strong associations with energy and functionality. Both black tea and green tea naturally contain caffeine, and manufacturers have increasingly explored tea-based formulations as alternative sources of energy.”