Beverage Efficacy Claims Grew 26.6% in China in H1 2026

Sales of drinks sold on efficacy claims grew +26.6% in China in the first half of 2026 on mainstream e-commerce platforms, the fastest of six beverage selling-point dimensions, according to Moojing Market Intelligence, while flavour ingredients remained the largest selling point at CN¥ 8.06 billion, flat on the year, as China's beverages moved from "tasty" to "tasty + functional".

This article covers the fourth chapter of the full report, which looks at the selling points on which China's drinks are sold, from flavour ingredients to efficacy claims, and at how the health positioning of beverages has changed since 2023.

Key figures

• +26.6%: drinks sold on efficacy claims, the fastest-growing of six selling-point dimensions
• CN¥ 8.06 billion: flavour ingredients, the largest selling point, flat on H1 2025
• CN¥ 610 million: drinks sold on a gut-health claim, the largest efficacy claim by sales
• +37.3%: drinks sold on a beauty and skin-care claim, and +33.7% on a nourishing and moisturising claim

Method and scope: observed online sales on mainstream e-commerce platforms in China, January to June 2026 against the same months of 2025, from Moojing Market Intelligence; not the total market. Selling points and claims are Moojing's classification of products by what they claim, so one drink can carry several and their sales overlap; they describe what products are sold on and say nothing about what the products do.

Which beverage selling points grew fastest in China?#

Drinks sold on efficacy claims grew fastest of the six beverage selling-point dimensions in China in the first half of 2026, at +26.6%, according to Moojing Market Intelligence, while flavour ingredients stayed the largest dimension by sales, at CN¥ 8.06 billion and flat on the year, and nutritional ingredients gained volume but lost value.

The six dimensions are flavour ingredients, formula health, nutritional elements, efficacy, tea base and formula safety, and the report reads the pattern among them as a market moving from broad health concepts towards specific functional claims, with flavour holding the base of the category and efficacy supplying its growth. The number of drinks sold on efficacy claims grew faster still than their sales, so the growth of the claim came from more drinks being bought as well as from what they were bought for.

Exhibit 18. Source: Moojing Market Intelligence, observed online sales on mainstream e-commerce platforms in China, H1 2026 on H1 2025, sales and units growth by selling-point dimension; five of the six dimensions shown, and all six are in the full report. A product can carry several selling points. Not the total market.

Which flavour ingredients lead China's beverages?#

Fruit, flower and herb, and grain flavours form three distinct groups among the flavour ingredients of China's online beverages, according to Moojing Market Intelligence, with peach, lemon, coconut and jasmine among the largest-selling ingredients in the first half of 2026 and herbs and flowers such as white peony, holly and reed root, with blood orange beside them, among the fastest-growing.

The largest-selling group runs from peach, lemon, coconut and jasmine to walnut, black bean, five grains, grains and pear, and it is the familiar base of the category, while the fastest-growing group is made up largely of herbs and flowers. The report points to an enhanced herbal flavour as one route to differentiation, and we believe the growth of these ingredients shows that flavours long used in traditional Chinese drinks can now be sold in modern drink formats.

Which efficacy claims carry the most sales?#

Among drinks sold on efficacy claims in China, those sold on a gut-health claim carried the most sales in the first half of 2026, at CN¥ 610 million, according to Moojing Market Intelligence, while drinks sold on beauty and skin-care claims, at +37.3%, and on nourishing and moisturising claims, at +33.7%, supplied most of the growth.

These are the claims the products make on their listings, classified by Moojing, and a drink that names two claims is counted under both, so the figures overlap and describe what shoppers are buying into rather than any effect of the drinks themselves. What they show clearly is that the growth in beverage efficacy claims in the first half of 2026 came from claims tied to appearance and everyday nourishment, while drinks sold on a gut-health claim were the largest by sales.

How has health positioning in China's beverages changed since 2023?#

Health positioning in China's online beverages has moved since 2023 from basic sugar reduction to natural ingredients and claims drawn from traditional Chinese food culture, according to Moojing Market Intelligence, as the hero products of each period changed from sugar-free tea and sparkling water to herbal waters, natural juices, electrolyte and vitamin drinks and, in 2026, a yam and apple Si Shen soup.

The report sets the hero products along the monthly sales line from 2023 to 2026, and read in order they show the change. Sugar-free oolong tea and sugar-free sparkling water stood out in 2023, an astragalus and codonopsis four-treasure tea, red-bean coix water and birch water in 2024, honeysuckle pomelo juice, electrolyte water, a vitamin functional drink and a walnut, sesame and black-bean powder in 2025, and a yam and apple Si Shen soup in April 2026. Natural drinks such as birch water and honeysuckle pomelo juice meet demand for clean labels, while functional drinks such as electrolyte water, vitamin drinks and the Si Shen soup are sold on supplementation and daily-nourishment claims, which is why the report describes beverage innovation as moving beyond sugar-free claims towards natural, functional and scenario-based products. The last section of the chapter, on Chinese-style wellness drinks, follows the same move into ingredients drawn from traditional Chinese food culture.

What does this mean for beverage brands?#

China's online beverages are moving from "tasty" to "tasty + functional", according to Moojing Market Intelligence, since efficacy claims grew +26.6% in the first half of 2026 while flavour ingredients, the largest selling point at CN¥ 8.06 billion, held flat, and the claims that grew fastest were those tied to appearance and everyday nourishment.

For a beverage brand, we believe the practical point is that flavour still has to carry the product, since it is where most sales sit, while the growth now comes from giving shoppers a specific, identifiable reason to choose one drink over another, whether that is a natural ingredient, a traditional herb or the moment the drink is meant for. Our earlier article on the growth of electrolyte drinks in China looks at one of those functional categories in more detail, the full report carries the beverage exhibits, including the flavour-ingredient groups and the wellness-drink section, and our China FMCG and food and beverage market intelligence page sets out what else we cover in the category.