AI is reinventing every beverage link—concept, flavor, production, channel, consumer. PepsiCo rolls out Salesforce Agentforce, embedding autonomous AI agents. ChaPanda's "AI + DevOps" model uses LLMs to lift R&D efficiency by 24%. Live cases fuel a practical Beverage AI Transformation White Paper that merges trends with step-by-step guidance.

In 2025, how did NOWWA Coffee leverage the "Store-in-Store" model to reach the 10,000-store milestone? How did they manage to open an average of 1,000 new stores per month without being crushed by price wars—and instead, see their cup volume triple?

Many beverage brands hit a growth ceiling not because of a bad product, but because they try to force "Tier-1 demands" onto lower-tier markets. The reality is that the same drink, once it enters a new market, becomes a completely different business model.

By leveraging "slow-brewing and low-sugar" formulations alongside innovations in packaging and distribution, "LOLO Herb" saw its new product sales hit 500,000 bottles on the first day. This legacy brand is successfully stepping outside its "Almond Dew" comfort zone to find new growth engines.

In a hyper-competitive global food and beverage market where traditional R&D efficiency is under pressure, how does PepsiCo R&D utilize external innovation to shatter category ceilings?

Peet's Coffee is the industry's steady “marathon runner.” With its “21-day freshness” rule for hand-poured beans and a lean, curated menu, Peet's has charted a unique growth path by mastering the art of “doing less.”

Herbal tea has long been strongly associated with the function of “preventing heatiness,” but Wonlucky has come up with a new approach—breaking down its signature “heatiness prevention” claim and embedding it into new consumption scenarios such as snacks and hotpot. Through sugar reduction, concentration, and cross-category formulation, it achieves deep integration with snacks and even hotpot seasonings.

For years, adding vegetable oil has been the industry’s “open secret” to mimicking the silkiness of dairy. However, FreeNow believes that true health shouldn’t require such a compromise. Its new Rye Milk isn’t positioned as a mere substitute, but as a celebration of the grain itself.

By leveraging its proprietary enzymatic hydrolysis technology, FreeNow has completely stripped away the added oils typically used for mouthfeel, preserving only the natural, robust aroma of rye. “No Added Oil in Rye, Full Fuel for Life”—this is more than just a slogan; it represents FreeNow’s “clean sweep” of traditional healthy formulas.

In 2023, HPP cold-pressed juice brands like VCLEANSE saw annual sales surpass 500 million RMB. The explosive popularity of HPP has sparked a more imaginative proposition: its potential extends far beyond fruit and vegetable juices. How can brands leverage this breakthrough advantage to empower beverage expressions that prioritize both "efficacy and flavor"?

With ice cup sales surging by 300% for two years straight, brands like Freshippo, Nongfu Spring, and Lawson are all ‘diving into the ice water.’ What exactly is the secret behind why these ice cups melt so slowly?

Long confined to "health symbols" and "holiday ingredients," cranberries were once a classic niche raw material. Ocean Spray broke this barrier by deep-diving into the science of Proanthocyanidins (PACs) and perfecting flavor compounding to strip away the "tart" and "function-specific" labels. No longer just a functional ingredient, it has transitioned from a specialized supplement to an everyday beverage by delivering a refreshing taste that fits any occasion.

As High-Pressure Processing (HPP) has been widely adopted in premium juice and beverage production, questions around processing time, energy consumption, line integration, and scalability have become increasingly relevant. Against this background, PEF has emerged as an alternative processing pathway with distinct engineering characteristics.

Pulsed Electric Field (PEF) processing applies short, high-voltage electric pulses to liquid products, disrupting microbial cell membranes through electroporation within microseconds and enabling fast, low-heat, continuous processing. With more than 270 industrial PEF systems installed globally, Elea has advanced PEF into a mature, energy-efficient technology for continuous beverage and juice processing.

This session introduces the scientific and engineering principles behind PEF and explains how they translate into real-world operation on modern beverage lines. Drawing on Elea’s commercial experience, industrial case examples from juices and functional beverages will highlight key process-engineering considerations to illustrate where each technology fits best in premium beverage production.

With 81% of its stores in Tier-2 cities and below—and notably avoiding Beijing and Shanghai—Guming has opened 13,000 locations! How does GOODME provide stable quality and affordable milk tea for lower-tier markets? And how did they successfully scale the local Tong Sui (dessert soup) flavors of Guangdong and Guangxi to the rest of the country?

Across the global beverage industry, innovation is shifting from single-point breakthroughs to parallel validation of product concepts. Diverse consumer needs, processing technologies, and flavor systems are creating new growth opportunities—while placing higher demands on R&D and application design.

The FBIF2026 Concept Product Launch does not define a single challenge. Instead, it highlights four high-relevance innovation pathways, giving shortlisted participants the flexibility to choose the direction best aligned with their strengths and to present commercially applicable product concepts that respond to real market needs.

Four Innovation Pathways

1 | Sports Nutrition

As the sports nutrition market continues to expand, innovation is moving beyond powders and shakes toward RTD, daily-use, and low-burden beverages. This pathway focuses on proteins, amino acids, electrolytes, and functional blends, with emphasis on taste, stability, and usage scenarios.

2 | HPP & Cold-Pressed Technology

With growing demand for minimally processed products, HPP technology is gaining traction across juices, functional beverages, and premium RTDs. This pathway explores flavor retention, formulation stability, and differentiated expression under HPP processing.

3 | Coffee Ingredient & Application Innovation

Coffee is evolving into a broader ingredient system spanning flavor, functionality, and everyday occasions. This pathway highlights innovative uses of coffee ingredients in RTD, functional, low-burden, and cross-category applications.

4 | Flavor & Sensory Innovation

Flavor has become a key driver of emotional connection and consumption context. This pathway encourages distinctive flavors, regional profiles, and multi-sensory designs, exploring how flavor can define product identity and competitiveness.