Ice, Chinese consumers' newest crush

In China, drinking warm or hot water is a long-standing daily practice passed down through generations and believed to bring good health.

However, fueled by an online buzz and changes to drinking habits, Chinese consumers — in particular social media-savvy young ones — are now putting ice, and plenty of it, in their drinks.

At convenience stores, cups of ice have become a popular seller. At tea and coffee shops, "full ice, no water" has become a popular way to order a drink. Young consumers have also turned cups of ice into a social media sensation, using them to create DIY drinks that have attracted huge online attention.

Gu Xiaoxiao, 36, a junior middle school teacher in Shanghai, is one of the ice drink devotees. For almost half the year, she has a cup of iced coffee at least once a day.

"I usually start in April or May and keep drinking iced coffee until September or October. Besides my daily quota, I also order iced drinks when dining out or meeting friends. Recently, I even arranged to queue with friends for a popular ice cup coffee that had gone viral online," said Gu.

According to a paper on China's urban consumer behavior in 2025, ice cup sales have grown by more than 300 percent for two consecutive years, with consumers in the first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong province's Guangzhou and Shenzhen buying an average of 48 cups per person per year, reported ThePaper.cn.

Publicly available data shows that ice cups are gaining wider market penetration, expanding from plain to flavored varieties and ice cubes designed for cocktails. A search for "ice cups" on Xiaohongshu, or RedNote, returned more than 40,000 posts.

Zhang Yi, CEO and chief analyst at iiMedia Research, attributed the rising demand for ice cups to the past two summers being very hot and young people wanting to make their own drinks using ice cups.

"The cold chain improvement has led to a cost reduction in ice transportation. On social media, the 'full ice, no water' trend has also become a new way for people to socialize," said Zhang.

"Consumers are increasingly willing to pay for ice that is cleaner and comes in more distinctive shapes," he added.