New research from WGSN, the consumer trend forecasting company, has highlighted tea’s “huge diversity” which enables it to encompass everything from hard tea to mate- and matcha-based RTDs, sparkling tea and tea-infused spirits.
WGSN said the rise of tea has been spearheaded by premiumisation, health and wellness, and demand for authenticity among younger legal drinking age (LDA) consumers.
The APAC region is the natural epicentre in terms of tea innovation, but there are clear signs of growth in North America and EMEA, with WGSN research indicating that social and influencer data places tea among the top wellness and indulgence trends for Gen Z.
Jennifer Creevy, director of food and drink at WGSN, said:“Driven by consumer demand for wellness, sensory novelty and global influences, the most innovative brands are leveraging a diverse range of tea varieties – often with regional provenance, functional benefits and layered flavour profiles – to create new experiences in drinks, snacks, dairy, bakery and more.”
Separate research has also found that hard tea has become one of the fastest-growing sub-categories in the RTD space, driven primarily by the US market. Volumes grew by +5% in 2025, according to IWSR data, and expanded at a CAGR of +22% between 2021 and 2025.
Canada is the second-largest global market, with volumes increasing by +6% in 2025 and +6% CAGR rise recorded between 2021 and 2025.
“The recent trajectory of hard tea mirrors the way in which hard seltzer scaled but tea is better understood in Europe than seltzers, suggesting that hard tea could have more potential for global growth,” said Susie Goldspink, head of RTD insights at IWSR.
There are also increasing signs of growth for a wide range of products, from mate- and matcha-based RTDs to tea-based liqueurs and tea-flavoured wines and spirits, such as gins using tea as a botanical ingredient.
According to IWSR’s RTD Innovation Catalogue, 3% of new RTD launches in 2025 had tea-related ingredients, up from 2% in 2021.
“Tea is much more than a niche; it is a flavour architecture that can underpin premiumisation strategies across spirits, RTDs and no/low,” concluded Goldpsink.
“The caffeine overlap opens up energy drink occasions, but without the baggage of synthetic stimulant positioning – and tea also bridges the gap with daytime and aperitif occasions, which remain under-developed for beverage alcohol."
Global Tea Innovation
IWSR’s research analysts also report a number of instances where tea is playing a key role in successful innovations around the world
• In Brazil, a viral trend for cocktails combining rum, yerba mate and guaraná has spawned a number of copycat RTDs.
• The use of yerba mate as a mixer with vodka is well established on the nightclub scene in Switzerland and is growing in Austria. It is also used as a pre-going out drink, early in the evening, and at festivals and parties.
• Sparkling tea is increasingly finding a foothold as a drink suited to the aperitif moment, acting as an alternative to no-alcohol sparkling wine.
• Tea-based liqueurs have entered the Italian market. While they remain niche, they are growing and innovating in cocktails and mixology.
• Green tea is one of the more popular mixers for Scotch whisky in China.
