Matcha: Why Has It Become the “Sun Never Sets” of the Beverage World?
13
10
2026
In 2025, China's ready-to-drink beverage market is undergoing an unprecedented "flavor explosion": oily mandarin, wampee, guava, raw coconut, light milk, thick milk, cold brew, nitrogen... New products are iterating on a monthly basis, repeatedly stimulating consumers' taste buds, with attention highly scarce.
However, in this noisy flavor arms race, matcha has shown rare stability and endurance—it is neither the newest trend nor the sweetest, yet it continues to appear in high-end lines, regular SKUs, and even crossover collaborations. From Xicha's launch of matcha lattes in 2017, to Nongfu Spring's inclusion of matcha in its Oriental Leaf regular series in 2024, and then to matcha milk in convenience store refrigerators, matcha has completed its leap from "internet celebrity" to "classic."
Its enduring popularity is worth careful study by beverage industry professionals.
01
Extremely Strong Flavor Compatibility:
It Can Both “Blend In” and “Lead”
Most popular flavors have clear boundaries: oily mandarin is too sour, making it hard to use in ambient beverages; raw coconut relies on a milk base, making it difficult to sugar-free; fruit flavors like white peach and lychee easily become cloying, with short repurchase cycles.
Matcha, however, has the ability to play a dual role. As a leading flavor: in unsweetened tea, matcha's umami and slight bitterness create clear recognition and support premium pricing. As a blending base: whether paired with milk, oat milk, coconut milk, sparkling water, coffee, or even alcohol, it can form a stable and layered mouthfeel structure.
More importantly, matcha naturally has a "de-sweetening" attribute. Under the health trend, consumers are increasingly wary of high-sugar drinks, and matcha's slight bitterness can precisely balance sweetness, allowing products to achieve a subtle balance between "tasty" and "guilt-free"—something most fruit flavors cannot do.
Matcha, however, has the ability to play a dual role. As a leading flavor: in unsweetened tea, matcha's umami and slight bitterness create clear recognition and support premium pricing. As a blending base: whether paired with milk, oat milk, coconut milk, sparkling water, coffee, or even alcohol, it can form a stable and layered mouthfeel structure.
More importantly, matcha naturally has a "de-sweetening" attribute. Under the health trend, consumers are increasingly wary of high-sugar drinks, and matcha's slight bitterness can precisely balance sweetness, allowing products to achieve a subtle balance between "tasty" and "guilt-free"—something most fruit flavors cannot do.
02
Highly Unified Visual Symbol:
Low Cognitive Cost
Low Cognitive Cost
On shelves overloaded with information, consumers take less than 3 seconds to decide. At this point, visual recognition efficiency is crucial.
Matcha has a globally recognized signature color—Matcha Green. This color family needs no textual explanation to convey multiple associations such as "natural," "fresh," "Japanese/Oriental," and "low burden." In contrast, "guava" needs an explanation of what fruit it is; "oily mandarin" is completely unfamiliar to northern consumers; "cold brew" is a process, not a visual symbol
A touch of green, however, crosses regions, ages, and cultures, forming a visual asset with zero education cost. Brands only need to use this color tone to quickly establish category belonging and emotional preset. This kind of "what you see is what you get" certainty is especially precious in a fragmented era.
Matcha has a globally recognized signature color—Matcha Green. This color family needs no textual explanation to convey multiple associations such as "natural," "fresh," "Japanese/Oriental," and "low burden." In contrast, "guava" needs an explanation of what fruit it is; "oily mandarin" is completely unfamiliar to northern consumers; "cold brew" is a process, not a visual symbol
A touch of green, however, crosses regions, ages, and cultures, forming a visual asset with zero education cost. Brands only need to use this color tone to quickly establish category belonging and emotional preset. This kind of "what you see is what you get" certainty is especially precious in a fragmented era.
03
Cultural Narrative:
Extensibility & Legitimacy
Extensibility & Legitimacy
Many popular flavors rely on short-term emotions (such as "dopamine color palettes" or "childhood memories"), but lack deep value support and are easily replaced by new hot topics.
Matcha is different—it is rooted in thousands of years of tea culture and combines: Eastern aesthetics (wabi-sabi, negative space, handcraft); health endorsement (rich in tea polyphenols, L-theanine); ritual associations (tea whisking, tea ceremony, slow living).
This allows its narrative to extend upward to "spiritual needs" and downward to "daily refreshment." Brands can flexibly invoke it according to positioning: high-end lines emphasize "Uji ingredients" and "stone-milled craftsmanship"; mass lines focus on "afternoon clarity" and "sugar-free and tasty"; crossover collaborations borrow "Zen" and "guofeng" for aesthetic grafting.
Cultural depth gives it anti-cyclical ability—when trends fade, the story remains.
This allows its narrative to extend upward to "spiritual needs" and downward to "daily refreshment." Brands can flexibly invoke it according to positioning: high-end lines emphasize "Uji ingredients" and "stone-milled craftsmanship"; mass lines focus on "afternoon clarity" and "sugar-free and tasty"; crossover collaborations borrow "Zen" and "guofeng" for aesthetic grafting.
Cultural depth gives it anti-cyclical ability—when trends fade, the story remains.
04
Supply Chain Capability:
“Controllable Scale” Has Been Achieved
“Controllable Scale” Has Been Achieved
Early matcha beverages were limited by two major bottlenecks: the high cost of real matcha powder (premium stone-milled matcha exceeded 800 yuan per kilogram); and sedimentation and oxidation issues (matcha easily clumps and changes color, affecting shelf life).
But by 2025, these two points have been gradually overcome: domestic substitution is accelerating: modern matcha planting and processing bases have been built in Guizhou, Zhejiang, and other places, with mid-range matcha powder prices falling 40%, and quality approaching Japanese entry-level; microencapsulation and stabilization technologies have become widespread, allowing matcha to maintain color and flavor in ambient beverages for more than 6 months; leading brands' large-scale procurement further dilutes costs.
This means matcha has moved from "luxury additive" to "a mass-producible high-quality flavor option." Companies no longer abandon it due to cost or technology; instead, they prioritize it because of its "high perceived value + controllable cost."
Matcha's enduring popularity is not due to marketing hype, but because it simultaneously possesses "high value + high feasibility" across four dimensions: flavor, visual, culture, and supply chain.
But by 2025, these two points have been gradually overcome: domestic substitution is accelerating: modern matcha planting and processing bases have been built in Guizhou, Zhejiang, and other places, with mid-range matcha powder prices falling 40%, and quality approaching Japanese entry-level; microencapsulation and stabilization technologies have become widespread, allowing matcha to maintain color and flavor in ambient beverages for more than 6 months; leading brands' large-scale procurement further dilutes costs.
This means matcha has moved from "luxury additive" to "a mass-producible high-quality flavor option." Companies no longer abandon it due to cost or technology; instead, they prioritize it because of its "high perceived value + controllable cost."
Matcha's enduring popularity is not due to marketing hype, but because it simultaneously possesses "high value + high feasibility" across four dimensions: flavor, visual, culture, and supply chain.
In an era of flourishing flavors, consumers chase novelty, but brands need anchors. Matcha is precisely that structural answer—able to attract attention, build trust, and support a premium. It may not become the sales champion, but it will always be the touchstone of a brand's tone, the ballast of high-end lines, and the load-bearing wall of cultural expression.
And that is what true "enduring prosperity" means.