According to the Global Wellness Institute, the global wellness industry reached a valuation of $4.5 trillion in 2022, with projections to reach $7 trillion by 2027. The global mental wellness market, meanwhile, will generate $20.09 billion in revenue in 2023, with an average growth rate expected to exceed 25%. Against this backdrop of a flourishing "new healing economy", young consumers are increasingly focused on self-reflection and self-care as key pursuits. For instance, the beverage brand Dydo leverages this trend by periodically partnering with functional health brands to co-develop targeted functional beverages designed for specific demographics. These products address needs such as fat reduction, sleep enhancement, and energy boosting. This discussion will delve into market data and global case studies to examine how beverage brands can transition from emphasizing health benefits to cultivating emotional connections, ultimately crafting products that provide young consumers with both mental satisfaction and a sense of well-being.

AB InBev’s proprietary market maturity framework offers forward-looking insights and dynamic strategies to navigate market evolution worldwide. However, the path to premiumization is rarely linear. In China, while the market is advancing toward maturity, unexpected variables have emerged, causing deviations from the model’s predictions.

What factors are driving these discrepancies in China’s premiumization process? With the rise of local competitors, evolving consumption scenarios, and the accelerating impact of digitalization, how is Budweiser reassessing the unique dynamics of the Chinese market? More importantly, how is the company leveraging product innovation, channel strategies, and brand positioning to dynamically adapt and ensure the successful execution of its premiumization strategy?

Kaijing Yan, Chairman of Tasly Holding Group, and Wei Wang, Founder of XINGYUN Group, joined forces with Professor Wei Jia and Dr. Ya Cai to explore the future of the ready-to-drink (RTD) tea industry.

Against the broader policy backdrop of the National Health Commission’s launch of the “Year of Weight Management” and the “Three Reductions, Three Health Improvements” initiative, a surge in health-conscious consumer demand is converging with the global rise of tea culture. In this context, two industry titans have integrated their strengths—bridging pharmaceutical innovation with a globalized supply chain—to introduce a pioneering product that marks a new chapter in RTD tea.

Does this collaboration signal China’s entry into the RTD Tea 3.0 era? Is the industry on the cusp of a transformation, with functional tea evolving from category innovation to a model of precise health management?

China's RTD tea market is poised to embark on a new chapter of health-driven evolution and multidimensional value enhancement.

Health beverages have evolved from a "niche label" into a core breakout category. Content-driven e-commerce platforms like TikTok have become critical arenas for beverage brands to incubate new products, capture trends, and activate target consumers. How can new products launch with impact? How can channels break through for growth? These have become two key challenges faced by an increasing number of brands.

Amid the content-commerce boom, LIGHTUP shifted its product launch strategy from channel-driven to content-driven. From its founding in 2022 to 2025, it rose to the top of TikTok’s beverage category by leveraging a “clean-label, zero-additive” health concept and youth-focused marketing as dual growth drivers. Through a closed-loop approach of “self-broadcasting + influencer seeding,” the brand not only achieved over RMB 1.6 billion in online sales but also funneled traffic precisely to offline distributors, enabling full-channel penetration.

This topic will dive deep into how LIGHTUP built a beverage growth flywheel suited to the new consumption era through a consumer co-creation product development model, a dual-channel blockbuster strategy, and a real-time feedback system.

In 2024, the global cactus beverage market, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.53%, highlights not only the rising popularity of flavor trends but also its position as a representative of functional health beverages. As a result, the topic of cactus beverages will be relaunched at FBIF 2025 with a fresh perspective after being canceled last year. We will delve into how cactus flavors are becoming a powerful tool for innovation in the beverage industry, uncovering the secrets behind their rapid expansion. Despite its relatively subtle aroma, color, and taste, how has cactus managed to capture market share through its unique health benefits and functional attributes?

Plant-based beverages are no longer a niche category—they have become a critical entry point linking health trends, consumer segmentation, and formulation innovation. Driven by the rising tides of sugar reduction, functional benefits, and personalization, the functional and cultural value of botanical ingredients is being reactivated.

The FBIF China Botanical Map, developed from the perspective of “medicine and food from the same source,” systematically catalogs edible plant resources across 34 provinces and regions in China, including wild vegetables, traditional Chinese herbs, and region-specific botanicals. This initiative aims to provide structured inspiration for formulation development, flavor exploration, and health-oriented innovation within the food and beverage industry.

According to Ma Shang Ying data, during the period from March to September 2024, the year-on-year growth rate of plant-based beverages' sales has always been maintained at around 20%, and reached a peak of 42% in August. Plant-based beverages may be the next sugar-free tea. However, compared with "sugar-free tea", the market share of plant-based beverages is only one-third of it, and the blue ocean market still exists. This topic aims to start from plant research and use scientific power to interpret the flavor secrets behind each plant. From component analysis to flavor extraction, rethink the innovative application and development of plant-based beverages with stronger "natural" attributes and "efficacy" in beverages in the face of future consumer demands.

According to the Zhouli Tianguan, ancient China had designated "Beverage Masters" responsible for crafting beverages like the six winter brews and six summer infusions. In the Ming dynasty, classic texts like Agricultural Administration defined "thirst-quenching water" as "beverages", while during the Sui and Tang dynasties, these drinks were called "yinzi". Over 100 traditional medicinal tea recipes for summer heat relief are recorded in ancient Chinese texts—for example, Yinshan Zhengyao describes a "Litchi Syrup Water" that could relieve thirst, and Widely Manual of Aromatic Plants mentions a method for creating thirst-quenching water by pressing lemon juice and boiling it with sugar. The Supplement to the Compendium of Materia Medica mentions that Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty instructed the Hanlin Academy to hold a beverage competition, which crowned "Perilla Infusion" as the top drink. Additionally, Tales of WuLin records that people in the Song Dynasty liked to drink "snow-soaked bean water" to cool down the summer.

The FBIF2025 Classics Revival Competition will invite leading ingredient companies to delve into ancient texts and draw inspiration from traditional "ancient drink" recipes. The challenge is to creatively craft a modern "ancient drink" with an innovative twist, offering brands a comprehensive ingredient solution for "plant-based drink" product development. Audience members will be able to taste these creations on-site and evaluate them across sensory dimensions, including flavor, color, and aroma, ultimately voting for their favorite "ancient drink". Join FBIF2025 Drink Talks to witness the revival of ancient flavors with a modern twist!

In 2024, the global flavored water market reached a value of $37.61 billion and is expected to grow to $60.39 billion by 2032. Although the adoption rate of flavored water in China has not yet surpassed that of regular bottled water, the "Water +" concept is gaining traction and evolving rapidly. Consumers are increasingly seeking more flavorful experiences while quenching their thirst, and flavored water adds value to drinking water by skillfully combining functionality with appealing formats, catering to both health and taste preferences. This discussion will conduct a comprehensive analysis of the "Water+" concept, examining how brands can strategically leverage precise market positioning to address consumers' evolving hydration demands.

In the international market, birch sap and maple sap have long been established as beverages, including brands like Ulan (Belarus), Dovgan (Germany), Sap! (Canada), and Treo (USA). In 2017, we explored the commercial potential of birch sap at FBIF. Today, the birch sap market in China is experiencing rapid growth, with annual sales surpassing 100 million RMB in the past year and achieving a nearly 600% year-on-year increase. Amidst this rapid growth momentum, how can birch sap transcend its niche status, strategically expand market share, and capture sustainable growth opportunities? Nordic Koivu Ltd, the earliest brand in Finland to commercialize birch water, will share the growth logic of birch sap and provide specific strategic directions for the brand.

In the first quarter of 2024, juice sales in China increased by 20.8%, with spending by young consumers born in the 1990s on pure fruit and vegetable juices and functional beverages rising by 16%, significantly outpacing the overall market growth. The UK juice brand MOJU identified the “functionalization” trend as early as 2015, introducing the UK’s first full-fruit smoothie shots utilizing High Pressure Processing (HPP) technology to deliver precise, supplement-like doses to consumers. Established nine years ago, MOJU now holds a 62% share of the UK functional juice market, with 2023 revenue reaching €13.9 million, achieving the highest growth rate in the UK juice beverage sector. This discussion will provide Chinese beverage brands with insights into the UK juice market and share lessons from MOJU's brand journey as a reference for the "Fruit + Vegetable" functional blend category in China.

The concept of "raw" goes beyond minimally processed, fresh tea infusions—it evokes purity and authenticity, much like draft beer or prosciutto. Kirin Nama-cha leverages this “raw” identity to enhance the perception of freshness, utilizing micro-milled tea leaves, low-temperature extraction, and other advanced techniques to elevate its taste. Coupled with a comprehensive marketing strategy, the brand’s 2023 relaunch led to explosive growth, selling 25 million bottles in just three days and surpassing 100 million bottles within seven weeks, making it one of Kirin’s best-selling products in history.

This session will explore the evolution of Kirin Nama-cha, examining how technological innovation, brand revitalization, and market insights transformed it from a single green tea product into a category-defining phenomenon.

In 2018, SATURNBIRD introduced its signature "small can," pioneering the fusion of specialty and instant coffee through its proprietary "REPUS®". This innovation established a new category that redefined convenience without compromising quality. Over the years, SATURNBIRD has continuously expanded its flavor horizons—from tea and natural wines to regionally inspired specialty coffees, snacks, chocolates, and ice creams—consistently pushing the boundaries of traditional categories.

This discussion will delve into SATURNBIRD's insights into its brand and the broader industry, using its journey as a lens to explore current opportunities and possibilities within the food and beverage sector from the perspective of industrial innovation.

From a definitional standpoint, functional beverages refer to drinks that help regulate bodily functions by adjusting nutritional components and their content ratios. They include multiple subcategories such as energy drinks, vitamin drinks, mineral drinks, sports drinks, probiotic drinks, and immune-enhancing beverages. According to data from Precedence Research, from 2022 to 2030, the global functional beverage market size is expected to reach $129.3 billion, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.94%. The functional beverage market is transitioning from the dominance of energy and sports drinks to a focus on diverse needs such as gut health, beauty maintenance, weight management, sleep improvement, and fat reduction.

Facing fierce competition and diversified consumer demands, brands need not only to meet consumers' diverse expectations in taste and product categories but also to achieve breakthroughs in healthy ingredients and functional benefits. For example, VINA's functional soda centers on brain and gut health, helping to balance multiple neurotransmitters in the body. Mighty Pop, on the other hand, has launched a prebiotic soda in the United States, with each bottle containing 1 billion live bacteria. In the future, how to provide consumers with an ideal functional experience under diversified demands will become an important topic for brands.

What if artificial intelligence didn’t just create a drink - but actually tasted it and chose the winning flavor?

Not virtually. Not theoretically. In real life.

Why? To enhance its predictive power and select the formula most likely to win over consumers.

This is no concept or futuristic prototype - HELL AI is a fully developed product, already available across Europe. Created by HELL Energy, a leading energy drink brand present in over 60 countries, this breakthrough pushes the boundaries of what’s possible when AI meets real-world manufacturing.

With one of the world’s largest and most advanced smart factories (6 billion cans produced annually), the company used AI not only to analyze global taste trends and functional ingredients - but also to take the final, most critical step: After generating multiple formulas, the AI selected its favorite by physically tasting the real drinks, created in a laboratory based on its own recipes — and judging the taste to determine which flavor would win with consumers.

Yes - the AI tasted the actual beverages it created.

So how did it work? How can AI taste a drink? How was that even possible?

Join us at FBIF Shanghai to discover how the impossible became reality — and how this breakthrough is transforming the future of food and beverage innovation.