The Magic Beverage Market: The More Zero, the More Expensive. Who is Creating Sugar Anxiety? Tea drinks | Beverages | Market
"Why are everyone rolling up?" Ms. An, born in the 1980s in Hangzhou, recently noticed that there are quietly more colleagues around her who drink various zero calorie drinks and zero sugar water. Every morning, everyone in the office has a low calorie and zero sugar drink in hand, replacing coffee and milk tea.
She recently found that the supermarket shelves were full of several rows of drinks with "zero sugar, zero calorie and low sugar". Even the oriental leaves, which had been roast about being "too hard to drink" and "rotten wood soaked in water", have regained consumers' favor. Many people drink it for simple and crude reasons: there are few ingredients in the table, and the nutritional ingredients are all "0".
"In the summer, I used to be afraid to eat sugar, but now I'm a bit afraid of sugar substitutes," said Ms. Xu from Hangzhou, who has just turned 30.
Behind the sugar color change lies consumer concerns about food additives. How much anxiety is deliberately created by beverage and food companies behind the high premium of "zero additives"? The Chao News reporter interviewed digital consumers and industry experts to see what kind of business is behind the string of "zeros" on beverage packaging bottles.
From difficult to popular
Has the mentality of this generation of consumers changed?
"A plain and unremarkable tea beverage, from difficult to popular, what's wrong with everyone?" Many people online asked.
Xiao Xu used to love drinking cola, but recently his temperament changed and he switched to drinking Oriental leaves. Every day, he must drink a bottle of jasmine tea, "which has a better taste than drinking water, without sugar, and is easy and burden free."
On social media platforms, there has also been a whirlwind of "sugar free drinks", with many people buying boxes and unlocking new ways to drink, and even rushing to buy hidden items. Some people have even developed new eating methods such as "quit violence", "dispel dampness", "nourish the skin", "lose weight", and "protein". In fact, they add honey, Poria cocos, milk, fiber powder, etc. to different flavors of oriental leaves, and the calorie content does not exceed 20 calories.
"Previously, the sweeter the better, now the lighter the better," said Lu Lu, a native of Beijing. In fact, they are all the same group of people. The young people who used to drink sweet drinks are now entering middle age.
"Looking back now, Dongfang Ye is still very ahead of its time," recalled Xiao Shao from Tianjin. Back then, the market was full of tea drinks with added sugar and milk, which were popular among many people. Instead, they launched sugar free tea, and it was not until now that they finally found the market.
Recently, roast also complained that the value of Oriental leaves has "risen". In some places, Oolong tea even rose a few yuan. After checking, it was found that it was out of stock because of the high heat. Some people also say that the seasonal limited edition Longjing new tea was actually fried online for 150 yuan per bottle, "it's outrageous!"
Netizen comments
The Chao News reporter learned from several convenience stores in Hangzhou that the best-selling oolong tea and jasmine tea among Dongfang Leaf Tea beverages are occasionally sold out. A shop owner told reporters that young people and office workers still make the most purchases. According to the Baidu search index, in the past six months, the popularity of Dongfang Ye has been continuously increasing, especially in summer when it enters its peak period.
The heat trend of oriental leaves in the past six months. When Dongfang Ye first appeared on the market, it once made it to the "difficult to drink" list, but now it has become the "leader" of Nongfu Spring's business. According to the 2022 financial report of Dongfang Ye, tea beverage products including Dongfang Ye contributed over 6.9 billion yuan in revenue to Nongfu Spring. According to Nielsen's data analysis, in the past twelve months, the growth rate of Dongfang Ye, which is close to 79%, far exceeds the overall growth rate of the tea beverage market, surpassing the industry by 85 times.
Dongfang Ye has been silent for ten years and has become popular for a while. It is closely related to health and consumption hotspots, as it has gained popularity on social media.
Another popular product in a similar situation is Suntory's sugar free oolong tea, which is also a frequent customer of out of stock refrigerators. New investors have also entered this market, and many beverage companies have launched sugar free tea drinks, becoming the "replacement" for popular hot selling products.
On one hand, "health drinks" are on the rise, while on the other hand, sugary drinks are also facing a crisis of trust.
"When buying beverages now, the first thing you see is definitely the ingredient list, which includes Abbasid sweet and various sugar alcohols. Try to avoid them as much as possible. Words like low sugar and green are all words that increase popularity," said Liu Yang, a person from Hangzhou, to reporters.
The days of sugary drinks, which once became popular due to their sugar free and low calorie content, have not been stable recently as numerous sweeteners have been questioned for their safety risks.
In February of this year, a study claimed that erythritol poses a risk of cardiovascular disease, and "sugar free" drinks such as Yuanqi Forest were embroiled in public opinion controversy. On July 14th, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a subsidiary of the World Health Organization, announced that aspartame was a "possible carcinogen", causing many sugar substitute companies to be deeply embroiled in public opinion.
So, under the demands of consumers to "control sugar", "reduce sugar" and even "cut sugar", "truly sugar free" has become a choice for many people. In the Singapore beverage grading table that sparked heated discussions among netizens in the first half of the year, Dongfang Ye and Suntory were rated A, particularly prominent among a group of domestically produced beverages rated C and D, which ignited the concept of "true sugar free".
And this sugar substitution controversy has sparked a lack of trust in sweet drinks, which is still in turmoil in the aftermath.
A beverage with no sugar and a higher price than sugar
The more "0s" on the label, the more expensive it can be sold?
"The sugar free version of Master Kang's jasmine green tea is 5 yuan a bottle, but there are 4 pieces of sugar. Is the price of sugar negative?" Tea lovers in Fujian can't help but complain roast. This bottle of drink marked "0 sugar, 0 energy, 0 fat" tastes good and light, but the price tag is puzzling.
A dealer told Momo that this was intentional by the merchant, and the purchase price was similar. Of course, the better selling ones would be more expensive, and some were intentionally gimmicks by the merchant.
How arrogant can sugar free drinks be nowadays? The Chao News reporter visited several convenience stores and supermarkets in Hangzhou, where they could see a variety of domestically produced sugar free tea and sugar free carbonated water, dominating the beverage shelves. Several tea drinks from Suntory and Kangshifu cost 3.9 yuan for the normal version, but 4.9 yuan for the low sugar version.
In addition to traditional tea brands such as Dongfang Ye and Suntory, there are also fiber tea from Yuanqi Forest, good tea from Naixue, barley tea from Heytea, and traditional beverage companies such as Wanglaoji, Yinlu, and Qingdao Beer that have also launched sugar free tea drinks... Industry insiders say that as long as tea drinks are labeled as "sugar free," they can sell more expensive than regular tea.
In the Tiktok live broadcast room, many businesses and families quietly equate "0 sugar, 0 fat, 0 calorie" tea ingredients with "weight loss" in the "fat reduction and sugar control" script. On some e-commerce platforms, milk drinks claiming to have a more "pure" and "simple" formula have sold at sky high prices, and a small cup of 135 gram yogurt from a certain store costs 59 yuan and 6 cups.
And this Jane Eyre yogurt, which claims "0 sucrose, 0 sugar, 0 addition" and "only has raw milk and lactic acid bacteria, everything else is gone", was pointed out by industry insiders as early as 2021 that "0 addition is just a gimmick". Because it belongs to the light asset model of OEM processing, enterprises spend a lot of costs on marketing to push up prices.
Despite this, with its sugar control philosophy of "zero sucrose, zero sugar substitutes", this yogurt is still selling wildly, with a compound annual growth rate of over 100% in 6 years. Against the backdrop of consumer trust crisis in sugar substitutes, "sugar free" has also become a powerful tool for harvesting consumers.
In this "no addition" trend, there are also "0 essence, 0 preservative". The popularity of Dongfang Ye is also related to its marketing philosophy. While sugar free beverage peers are still aggressively promoting zero sugar, zero fat, and zero calories, Dongfang Ye's promotional posters already have five zeros.
However, does "simple" and "pure" really mean healthier? According to industry insiders, "zero addition" is just a tactic. Firstly, if the product itself does not require additional additions, "zero addition" is actually a gimmick. Secondly, the brand claims to have "0 additions" and there is suspicion of implying that competitors have "added". In addition, certain foods that do not have preservatives and are completely "zero added" may also pose a risk of consumption. That is to say, "zero additives" and "minimalist formulas" cannot make a certain food healthier and safer.
Is it worth paying for "zero"? Expert: Anxiety is not necessary
In recent years, consumers have become increasingly concerned about health, and the concepts of "true sugar free" and "true zero additives" have become popular. However, with increasingly "crazy" ingredient lists and labels, and a dazzling array of products, everyone has also fallen into chaos. Will they really be healthier?
Does zero addition and a clean and simple ingredient list mean the product is more expensive? Is it really necessary to pay for "zero"? The Chao News reporter interviewed Professor Zhu Jiajin from the School of Biological Systems Engineering and Food Science at Zhejiang University.
Zhu Jiajin stated that although the relevant science popularization has been ongoing for many years, many consumers still have misunderstandings about "zero additives", and there is no need to worry about "turning pale when talking about sugar".
Zhu Jiajin said that there are three directions for sugar free drinks now. Firstly, there is no need for sugar, such as adding sugar to oriental leaves. The second is to reduce sugar consumption. Currently, mainstream carbonated beverage brands in China have a sugar content of approximately 11% or 12%, which has dropped to 9% or 7%. In fact, they are also reducing sugar, and they have also seen that consuming too much sugar has many negative effects on human health. The third is sugar substitutes, including the use of artificial sweeteners, sugar alcohols, fiber, prebiotics, and other substitutes. The ultimate result of these three directions is a product presented by the terminal that consumers can accept and enjoy. This product is not a single component, but a combination of them.
"From a consumer perspective, there is no need to talk about sugar discoloration, but to let a more scientific and healthy knowledge structure guide our diet." At the recent FBIF2023 Food and Beverage Innovation Forum, Li Facai, Chairman of Bowling Bio Co., Ltd., also said.
At present, the beverage market is mixed with good and bad, and Zhu Jiajin also stated that on the one hand, consumer health awareness is gradually increasing. On the other hand, there are internet celebrity bloggers who earn traffic, and on the other hand, it is closely related to the profit pursuit of enterprises. Driven by these three forces, many consumers have excessive concerns about sweeteners and food additives. In fact, the regulations in our country are very strict, and additives must be strictly used within the limits.
Recently, Sun Lin, a Zhejiang native who used to love using "0 sugar and 0 fat" drinks for intermittent weight loss, suddenly had a desire.
For a period of time, when buying a beverage, she had to pick for half a day and had to choose the one with the lowest sugar content and the least ingredients. Nowadays, she rarely looks at whether it is sucrose, sugar substitute, or "really sugar free" when buying a beverage, only using taste as the selection criterion.
"I have eaten a lot of junk food, and I don't know how many high calorie foods I have eaten since I was young. It's just a bottle of beverage, a few calories, and I'm worried about additives. It's really tiring," said Sun Lin.
