It’s time to spill the tea! Next year is set to be an exciting time for this traditional beverage as a new wave of functional and FUN drinks hit the market. From protein-powered boba to mixed berry matcha, innovation around natural health and whimsy is brewing. Read on to get a glimpse at the tea beverage trends we’re tracking in 2025.
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Where do our tea beverage trends come from?
We use Tastewise to predict 2025 tea beverage trends and deliver market leading insights. This social listening platform mines millions of unique data points across social media posts, restaurant menus, online recipes, and more to create a comprehensive picture of what’s heating up (or cooling off) in the food and beverage industry. Two main indicators of a trend’s strength are percent share of social conversations and percent increase in social conversations year over year (YoY).
- Percent Share of Social Conversations: How often a key search term or phrase is mentioned in conversations about a topic, relative to all conversations about that topic. For emerging trends this number will be quite low, as the flavor or ingredient has not gone viral or mainstream yet. This is the time to spot opportunity and be a trendsetter!
- Percent Increase in Social Conversations Year Over Year (YoY): Relative increase in mentions for a key search term or phrase in conversations about a topic. A significant increase YoY means there is more “chatter” around the flavor, ingredient, motivation, occasion, or any of the hundreds of other food and beverage variables. In larger sample sizes, this velocity metric is a good indicator of when a trend is gaining traction.
To uncover these tea beverage trends, we segmented the database for content that referenced “coffee beverages.” With a sample size of over 693,000 people, we are able to gain early insight into emerging trends. Read on for exciting insights in Fruit Flavors, Sweet Flavors, Functional Health, and Consumer Experience.
Fruit Flavors
There’s something bright and refreshing about a fruit-flavored tea. Like wine, the tannin structure of the tea provides interest and complexity while fruit flavor adds personality and distinction. Tea beverage trends for 2025 show increased demand for “forest berry” flavors such as wild berry, currant, and mixed berry. These fruits have darker flavor profiles that are a great match for black teas like Assam and Darjeeling, or robust green teas like Gunpowder. “Specialty citrus” flavors are also becoming popular with tangerine, pomelo, and calamansi showing growth in tea beverage conversations. Citrus flavors work beautifully in green and herbal teas, as well as cream based tea black tea beverages like boba. Offering consumers novel citrus options can help keep them engaged and excited in the category.
For a mix of the familiar and trendy, try pairing currant with black cherry and rose, or calamansi with chamomile and pear. Tea offers a beautiful canvas for flavor exploration, so don’t be afraid to get creative!
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Supplement Ingredients
Tea has been used as a health supplement for thousands of years. Special tea preparations are made to treat a variety of physical, mental, and emotional conditions. Botanicals, spices, fungi, and other ingredients (with healing properties real or desired) are compounded, brewed with water, and consumed as a tonic. With a backstory like that, it’s no surprise that tea beverages are experiencing significant success in the functional beverage category. From a sensory perspective, tea’s natural bitterness and drying tannins help mask the off-notes and tastes that some functional beverage ingredients have.
What supplement ingredients are trending for tea? This year there was an uptick in cherry blossoms conversations. Called “sakura” in Japan, cherry blossoms may offer anti-inflammatory benefits. It is also a popular seasonal tea flavor enjoyed during winter/spring sakura blossom festivals.
L-Theanine is becoming popular with significant YoY increases in social conversations. L-theanine is an amino acid naturally found in tea leaves. Clinical studies have shown it to be effective at improving mental focus and promoting non-drowsy relaxation. This functional ingredient trending in other beverage categories, including mocktails, coffee, and energy drinks. Protein powder is also gaining traction as a tea functional, perhaps due to the increasing popularity of milk tea beverages. Maybe this is the year of the cherry blossom high protein boba shake? We hope you try these tea beverage trends in your 2025 formulations.
Functional Health
Tea has a long history as both a stimulating and healthy beverage. While “antioxidant” and “energy boost” are frequent claims for tea beverages, we’re seeing an increase in other health needs too. Weight loss drugs is by far the fastest rising functional health claim mentioned in “tea beverage” conversations. This may indicate its use as either a medicine carrier or as a tool for treating the side effects associated with GLP agonists, such as Ozempic.
While this is exciting YoY change, hormone balance is showing stronger relevance to the topic. When looked at conjointly with menopause symptom relief, we see an opportunity for women’s health support. Adding female friendly supplements to tea beverages, while keeping them low in sugar and targeting the weight loss drug market, may be a smart strategy in the year ahead.
Consumer Experience
In many cultures, the tea consumption experience is treated with reverence and ceremony. Even in its most casual form, there are special rituals, vessels, and preparation steps associated with tea drinking. Translating that consumer experience to prepared and RTD tea beverages is important.
This year we’re seeing an emerging correlation between tea beverages and the Tradlife (sometimes referred to as “Tradwife”) aesthetic. Tradlife is a movement that embraces traditional gender-based roles and a return to the nuclear family dynamic. Tea may be seen as more natural or “cottagecore” when compared to other beverage categories, which could explain the rising connection between the two. Vitality, serenity, and whimsy are also showing strong YoY increases with significant topic relevance. Messaging that focuses on home and hearth, family, achieving balance, peace, and playfulness can help beverage brands position themselves closer to these experience trends.
