Sector Outlook 26/27: Tea
Published 10 December 2025
Tea is more than pulling its weight globally as a conduit for flavour and functionality, with brands creating formulations that appeal to today’s time-strapped consumers. Tea’s wellness properties are also manifesting in day-to-night adaptogenic ranges, elevated kombucha varieties and tea-based alcohol alternatives. Meanwhile, sustainability initiatives are securing a better future for the sector.
Cold Convenience
Expanding Tea’s Wellness Properties
Tea Takes Accountability
Tea continues to take on the soft drinks sector with ready-to-drink (RTD) formats, from quick and customisable iced teas to on-the-go matcha-infused beverages. Meanwhile, sparkling canned and bottled concoctions are enticing young consumers with bold flavours and health-boosting benefits.
Tea continues to take on the soft drinks sector with ready-to-drink (RTD) formats, from quick and customisable iced teas to on-the-go matcha-infused beverages. Meanwhile, sparkling canned and bottled concoctions are enticing young consumers with bold flavours and health-boosting benefits.
Tapping into tea’s wellness potential, brands offer lines imbued with functional benefits that cater for different times of the day. Other innovations, like infusing tea leaves with supplement powders, provide a novel take on vitality-promoting beverages. Meanwhile, tea-based alcohol alternatives are proliferating to meet the needs of sober-curious consumers. For more on this cohort, see Sober Curiosity: 2025 Update.
Whether helping farmers to adopt regenerative agriculture practices or source regenerative ingredients (such as sugar), tea manufacturers are increasingly meeting the need for more sustainable production pathways. Meanwhile, efforts to support tea-growing communities continue, with initiatives focused on farmers’ rights and safety. See Sector Outlook 23/24: Tea for earlier examples.
Sector Outlook 26/27: Tea
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Sector Outlook 26/27: Tea
Tea is more than pulling its weight globally as a conduit for flavour and functionality, with brands creating formulations that appeal to today’s time-strapped consumers. Tea’s wellness properties are also manifesting in day-to-night adaptogenic ranges, elevated kombucha varieties and tea-based alcohol alternatives....