Coca-cola turns up the heat on China’s beverage market

By LIU Yujing

“Drink some hot water” is a phrase Chinese people often hear from their families and friends when winter comes, or when they feel unwell.

Now Coca-Cola is looking into opportunities in the Chinese hot-drinks market, with a ginger-flavor hot soda.

This is not Coca-Cola’s first assault on the hot-drinks market. The company released ginger flavored drinks in 2017 and in 2019, and has tried selling other hot ginger drinks in restaurants.

The company told Jiemian News the new soda, “Ginger +”, tastes similar to traditional homemade ginger tea, but with a conventional soda flavor.

A report by consulting company GlobalData suggests the hot-drinks market in the Asian-Pacific region could be as much as US$215 billion (1400 billion yuan) in 2022, up from US$160 billion in 2017. The report also said that young people prefer natural ingredients in their drinks, such as ginger, cinnamon, mint, and sesame.

Subsidiary brands of Coca-Cola have also launched hot drinks. Minute Maid’s hot fruit flavor drinks and coffee brand Georgia’s milk tea are popular among young people.