Mid-Autumn Drinks: Why Alcohol and Chilled Dairy Grew Most

Introduction#

In Q3 2024, China's overall online food and beverage market grew by just 1.2% YoY, well below the 4.7% of Q3 2023. Two beverage categories grew at an entirely different order of magnitude, with alcohol at +42.9% and chilled dairy at +51.7%. Moojing Market Intelligence's H2 2025 analysis of transaction data from two leading Chinese marketplaces indicates that these are neither promotional anomalies nor one-season spikes. Alcohol's strength in the festival season rests on baijiu, which generated CN¥ 68.2 billion in Mid-Autumn sales at +50.6% YoY and was the largest and fastest-growing food category in the festival window. Chilled dairy's growth over MAT2025 (July 2024 to June 2025) held at +21%, which shows that what the Mid-Autumn season amplified was a structural trend already running at scale. For H2 2025 product selection, we believe alcohol and chilled dairy are the two highest-conviction food and beverage categories, and this article sets out why, and which sub-segments and products are driving the growth.

Alcohol: Baijiu Leads, International Spirits Add Premium Breadth#

Alcohol's growth of 42.9% YoY in Q3 2024 comes overwhelmingly from baijiu (白酒), China's native white spirits category, which generated CN¥ 68.2 billion in Mid-Autumn period sales at +50.6% YoY. No other food category approaches that rate of expansion. The structural driver is the lasting link between baijiu and Chinese gifting culture, since baijiu is the default premium gift for business relationships, family elders and senior professional contacts. As consumer spending has become more selective, baijiu has kept its place as the main gift while other obligatory-gift categories, notably mooncakes in mid-price gift boxes, have weakened.

The broader alcohol category extends beyond baijiu to international spirits and tonic wine, both of which have added premium breadth to the alcohol gifting occasion. Whisky and cognac in particular have established credible gifting positions among younger urban professionals who want to set their gift apart from the standard baijiu offering without giving up the premium price signal that the gifting occasion requires. Tonic wine, a category that spans traditional Chinese medicinal wine formulations and premium fruit-based liqueurs, captures the health-adjacent gifting intent, particularly for gifts to older family members.

The practical implication for product selection follows from this. Alcohol does not need heavy promotional investment to come alive in the festival window, because it meets a baseline gifting need that the festival amplifies. For the 2025 Mid-Autumn and National Day season, we believe alcohol should be positioned as a primary gifting anchor. Sauce-aroma (酱香型) and strong-aroma (浓香型) baijiu in festival-specific gift pack formats should lead, paired with international spirits as a premium trading-up option for younger consumers.

Tea: Specialty Varieties Outrun the Market#

Tea grew 22.7% YoY in Q3 2024, which made it the third-strongest food and beverage category after alcohol and chilled dairy. The growth is concentrated in premium niche variants, however, and mainstream green tea has contributed little of it.

The most notable growth has come from dried tangerine peel or citrus pu'er tea (陈皮普洱) and yellow tea (黄茶), niche categories with strong wellness narratives around digestive health, detoxification and ageing. Both draw authenticity from regional provenance (Guangdong for citrus pu'er, Anhui and Hunan for yellow tea). Their growth reflects a broader consumer appetite for regional specialty and wellness-led tea, driven by a core group of urban consumers who have moved on from standard loose-leaf green tea to more specialised tea experiences.

Black tea, pu'er and oolong remain the main volume contributors within the overall tea market. For 2025, we believe the priority is a tea assortment built on the volume contributors (black tea, pu'er) and differentiated through high-growth specialty formats (citrus pu'er, yellow tea) that command premium price points and carry strong gifting credibility. Festival-specific tea gift sets, such as regional specialty blends in high-quality packaging, fill an underserved position between generic tea gifting and ultra-premium baijiu gifting.

Chilled Dairy: Structural Growth Beneath the Festival Spike#

Chilled dairy's Mid-Autumn growth of 51.7% YoY is the most significant single-category figure in the H2 2024 food data set. Its significance is greater for the sustained growth behind it: MAT2025 growth is +21%, so the Mid-Autumn spike landed on top of an already-strong annual baseline.

The structural dynamic in the chilled dairy market is premiumisation built on health concepts, and three concepts are driving the category's growth. A2 casein protein, from cows carrying the A2 beta-casein gene variant and marketed as easier to digest, is a central differentiator for Yue Xian Huo (悦鲜活), whose lead product is its A2 Fresh Milk. High-protein 4.0 fresh milk, with protein content at or above 4.0g per 100ml, anchors the range of Meiri Xianyü (每日鲜语). Zero-sucrose yogurt captures the sugar-control health trend, as in Junlebao's (君乐宝) Jianchun 0-Sucrose Yogurt.

Newer brands are building on the same concepts, as Renyang Yitou Niu (仁养一头牛), a new entrant, has done with its A2 "Tun Tun Milk". We believe this shows that differentiated functional positioning can win customers quickly even in a category with well-established brands. Traditional brands have responded through product innovation in place of promotional discounting, as in Mengniu's (蒙牛) Dual Flavor 0-Sucrose Fruit Yogurt and Kassi's (卡士) original yogurt, which is positioned around artisanal process quality.

Process innovation is emerging as a second dimension of differentiation alongside functional ingredients. "Cold brew" dairy and "milk skin" (奶皮) products, which take traditional dairy-making techniques into premium positioning, are growing fast, and this suggests that consumers are willing to pay a significant premium for provenance and craft stories that sit alongside health credentials.

Chilled Dairy's Festival Gifting Opportunity#

Chilled dairy has historically held a weaker position in festival gifting than shelf-stable categories, because logistics friction and short shelf life have limited it as a gift. The Mid-Autumn sales data suggests that this constraint is easing as direct-to-home e-commerce delivery matures, and fresh milk and premium yogurt in gift-pack formats are becoming credible items for family reunions, particularly in families with health-conscious members.

For festival product selection, we believe the chilled dairy offering should be built around the three main health concepts of A2 fresh milk, high-protein 4.0 milk and zero-sucrose yogurt. Together these sub-categories are the highest-conviction growth drivers in chilled dairy, and they have the strongest consumer pull at a time when the family reunion occasion amplifies health messaging. Bundled promotions that combine fresh milk with functional yogurt in a single chilled purchase can raise basket size while reinforcing the health message.

Instant Drinks: The Functional Transition#

Alongside the strong growth in alcohol and chilled dairy, the broader beverages and instant drinks category grew 4.7% in Q3 2024, well above the +1.3% of Q3 2023. Within it, instant drinks as a sub-category tell a more mixed story. The overall instant drinks market reached CN¥ 4.56 billion in MAT2025 and came under pressure, as traditional leisure formats such as milk tea and lotus root powder lost ground while functional wellness formats grew against the trend.

Traditional Chinese wellness instant drinks grew 18.4% during the Mid-Autumn period, and food-medicine homology (药食同源) ingredients are the growth drivers, among them kudzu root powder (Xinsheng Tang), monkey head mushroom rice porridge (Jiangzhong Shiliao) and black sesame paste (Nanfang Black Sesame). Wang Bao Bao's raw cacao kale powder shows the crossover between international superfood concepts and Chinese demand for functional wellness.

For instant drinks in H2 2025, we believe the selection should come from the functional sub-segments and move away from the traditional formats whose sales are falling. Kudzu root powder, black sesame paste and five-black-grain formulas are the selection priorities, while milk tea and lotus root powder are the formats to de-select.

Consumer Gifting Behaviour and What It Means for Brand Strategy#

The consumer behaviour data across the alcohol and dairy categories points to one pattern, which is that Mid-Autumn gifting has become more selective and more health-conscious. Consumers are moving away from obligatory category purchases such as generic mooncake gift boxes towards considered purchases that carry both a premium social signal and a functional benefit. In chilled dairy, the health positioning (A2, high-protein, zero-sucrose) serves both self-consumption upgrades and family gifting, particularly as consumers increasingly give practical health products in place of decorative luxury items.

The combined implication for 2025 brand strategy is that the Mid-Autumn festival beverage portfolio should be built around two poles, prestige gifting (premium baijiu, international spirits, specialty tea in festival editions) and health-conscious family consumption (A2 dairy, functional yogurt, wellness instant drinks). Ambient dairy, the largest dairy sub-category but one that came under pressure, belongs to neither pole and should not anchor a festival-specific merchandising strategy.

Conclusion#

Alcohol at +42.9% and chilled dairy at +51.7% in Q3 2024 are the clearest growth signals in China's festival food and beverage data. Both categories reflect long-standing consumer habits, gifting culture in alcohol and health-driven daily consumption in dairy, which the Mid-Autumn occasion amplifies but does not create. For H2 2025 selection, we believe these are the two highest-conviction food and beverage categories, and that within each the strongest sub-segments are those built on functional health credentials, premium positioning and format innovation. Brands that have already adapted their ranges to this shift are well placed for the season.