Ice, Chinese consumers' newest crush

Tao Tao, an illustrator based in Beijing, traces her habit of using ice cups back to her time studying in South Korea several years ago. In South Korea, she noticed people often purchased brewed coffee and ice cups separately at supermarkets, making it easy to create an iced Americano.

She was delighted to find that in the past two years, ice cups have become readily available in Beijing supermarkets, making a cold drink easily accessible during the hot summer months.

"The combination of ice cups with various beverages like coconut water, cold brew coffee, juice, or alcohol allows for simple and instant creative daily creation," she said.

Japanese convenience store chain Lawson said a steady growth has been seen in sales of ice cups and bagged ice over the past two years. Its ice cup sales rose more than 30 percent from May to July in both 2025 and 2026.

"Young consumers are increasingly pairing ice cups with coffee and other drinks, driving Lawson to introduce more creative products, including sparkling ice cups and rainbow-colored varieties, to meet their changing tastes," said the company.

Zheng Wei, general manager of Ice Extreme (Beijing) Food Technology Ltd, a Beijing-based edible ice manufacturer, said Chinese official media has forecast that the iced drink market will reach 63.9 billion yuan ($9.48 billion) in 2026.

Zheng said the demand for iced drinks has become more consistent. In the past, most factories would shut down during the off-season. Now, they run one shift in the off-season and two during the peak summer season.

"Previously, market demand mainly came from businesses in the likes of convenience stores, but in recent years, innovative retail formats including instant retail have seen rapid growth," Zheng said.

"The market used to be dominated by basic products such as cups of ice and bagged ice. Now we offer products including specially-shaped ice, ice buckets and slow-melting cocktail ice, tailoring to diversified needs."