Week of 17–23 November 2025 (Asia)

發布日期：17 Nov 2025

Week of 2025-11-17–2025-11-23 (Asia/Taipei)

1. Macro lens – what’s moving RTE/RTD in Asia right now

  • Zero-sugar & low-calorie RTDs are becoming a default brief. The global zero-sugar beverages market is projected to grow from about USD 71.9 billion in 2025 to 155.4 billion by 2032, with Asia-Pacific a major contributor. Fortune Business Insights+1 Low-calorie RTDs (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) are also forecast to reach about USD 50.1 billion by 2035, driven by “sober-curious” and moderation trends. Future Market Insights

  • Functional beverages keep expanding in volume and complexity. The global functional beverage market is on track to exceed USD 200 billion before 2030, with energy, sports, nutraceutical, and enhanced water segments all growing. The Business Research Company

  • RTD innovation is shifting from “flavour only” to “flavour + function.” Industry commentary highlights protein fortification, cognitive support, gut health, and mood as priority benefit areas for RTDs. Glanbia Nutritionals

These structural currents sit behind what you see in Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Thailand: local launches are reacting to tax policy, demographic change, and convenience-store channel power, but the direction of travel is clearly toward cleaner labels, sugar reduction, and “everyday functional” positioning.

2. Taiwan – C-store ecosystem + seasonal RTDs

2.1 Retail & C-store innovation

  • 7-ELEVEN as beverage and RTE engine. PCSC’s 2025 revenue releases show that seasonal beverage campaigns are central to growth:

    • In May 2025, 7-ELEVEN highlighted a 6.6 % YoY revenue lift and explicitly credited new summer drinks, ice items and beer launches. ir.7-11.com.tw

    • In June–July 2025, they doubled down with “innovative seasonal beverages, ice products and beers,” including limited-edition Slurpees and themed cold products aimed at summer traffic. ir.7-11.com.tw

  • Automation and unmanned formats. By November 2025, 7-ELEVEN had opened at least nine unmanned “grab-and-go” stores in Taiwan, using smart retail technology to sell drinks and RTE items with minimal labour. Facebook

  • Convenience stores as lifestyle hubs. A broader feature on Taiwan’s c-stores notes ~14,000 outlets nationwide, with 7-ELEVEN and FamilyMart dominating, and highlights themed stores, mobile stores and cashless micro-formats (e.g. OK Mart’s vending-based mini-stores). Taiwan News+1

2.2 Notable beverage & RTE patterns (2025)

  • Fresh RTD coffee as a structural pillar. 7-ELEVEN’s City Café remains the leading fresh coffee brand in Taiwan, powered by store density and constant SKU refresh. Taipei Times This is effectively a massive RTD/RTS (ready-to-serve) platform.

  • Flavour-driven limited editions. A recent example: a Lala Mountain peach Slurpee rolled out to ~1,500 7-ELEVEN stores in September (limited run to October 1), tying in local fruit provenance with an impulse RTD format. Instagram

2.3 Functional / sustainability angles

  • Private-label tea with carbon footprint labels. FamilyMart’s CSR report notes that its self-branded tea drinks have obtained carbon-footprint certification, signalling a packaging and sustainability story layered on top of a very everyday RTD category. family.com.tw

  • Smart/mobile stores expand reach. FamilyMart’s smart and mobile formats extend RTE and RTD access into more worksite and event spaces, effectively making chilled RTE/RTDs part of infrastructure rather than “just retail.” Taiwan News

Take-aways for you (Taiwan):

  • Seasonal RTD launches (citrus, local fruit, herbal, low-sugar tea) are already the norm; differentiation increasingly comes from story (origin/fermentation) and function (e.g. gut comfort, calm focus) rather than flavour alone.

  • Sustainability (carbon labels on tea) suggests opportunity to frame fermented RTDs around low waste, local sourcing, and minimal processing alongside health.

3. Japan – RTD coffee innovation & premiumization

3.1 RTD launches and category directions

  • Carbonated espresso: FIZZPRESSO. Ito En launched FIZZPRESSO in 2025 under its TULLY’S COFFEE brand: a carbonated espresso RTD positioned for urban, health-conscious consumers seeking novelty and lighter refreshment. martnerjapan.com This illustrates:

    • Movement away from heavy, sweet canned coffee toward refreshing, low-calorie formats.

    • Willingness to play at the boundary of coffee/soft drink.

  • RTD cocktails scale up. Japan’s RTD cocktail market is estimated at about USD 3.2 billion in 2024 and projected to grow strongly, driven by convenience, moderation, and variety of flavours. LinkedIn

  • Export-driven RTD coffee. UCC’s Ueshima Coffee launched canned RTD Iced Latte and Iced Matcha Latte into the UK market in 2024, showing that Japanese RTD coffee and tea are now built with export in mind. UnivDatos

3.2 Health essences + RTD as a dual strategy

  • Suntory’s 2025 APAC plan. Suntory explicitly names Asia-Pacific as a key growth region for a combined strategy:

    • Traditional “essence” tonics like bottled chicken- and ginseng-based health elixirs, and

    • Modern RTD beverages, from teas to alcohol RTDs, designed to meet “everyday health” needs. FoodNavigator-Asia.com

This duality is important: it blurs the line between supplements and drinks, implying room for fermented, enzyme-rich, or probiotic RTDs that sit between medicine and refreshment.

3.3 Convenience-store RTE/RTD role

  • Recent country-level retail reporting describes Japanese convenience stores pivoting toward higher-quality ready meals, deli foods, and premium sauces to compensate for demographic decline and volume softness; in this context, chilled drinks and RTDs are part of a “mini-supermarket plus” experience, not just impulse buys. Euromonitor

Implications (Japan):

  • RTD coffee/tea is intensely crowded; the room to play is in format (sparkling, layered textures), function (focus, calm, gut comfort) and hybridisation with traditional essences.

  • Packaging needs to read both tech-driven (clean, minimalist, reliable) and heritage-rooted (fermentation, koji, tea traditions), especially if targeting export-ready SKUs.

4. South Korea – RTD coffee scale + fermented “Kimchi Me”

4.1 Market size & direction

  • RTD coffee as a major pillar. South Korea’s RTD coffee market is valued around USD 1.51 billion in 2024, with forecasts to reach about USD 2.68 billion by 2034 (CAGR ~5.9 %). Research and Markets

  • On-premise RTDs poised for growth. CGA’s 2025 analysis notes RTDs are “ready to grow” in Korea’s on-premise channels, with strong trial intent and openness to new formats among younger adults. CGA

4.2 Fermented RTD flagship: Narichan “Kimchi Me”

  • Launch profile. Narichan, a kimchi-specialist, launched “Kimchi Me” in November 2024 as a canned RTD kimchi juice. FoodNavigator-Asia.com+1

  • Functional positioning.

  • Export ambitions. Reports note placement in US Korean supermarkets (e.g. H Mart) and plans for broader export across Asia–Pacific, framing it as a fermented functional RTD rather than just ethnic novelty. Global Growth Insights+1

4.3 RTE side – chilled, deli, and kimchi

  • RTE chilled/deli expansion. South Korea’s chilled & deli foods market sees opportunity in RTE meals, snack packs and meal kits tailored to varied diets and occasions. LinkedIn

  • RTE kimchi as a growth anchor. Coverage from late 2024 points to rising sales of RTE kimchi amid higher vegetable costs and “kimchi fatigue” at home; retailers answer with prepared kimchi and even canned kimchi formats, sometimes cross-leveraging them into beverages (as with Kimchi Me). FoodNavigator-Asia.com+1

4.4 C-store channel dynamics

  • Convenience-store guides emphasise that major chains (GS25, CU, 7-ELEVEN, Emart24) now function as 24/7 eat-in mini-cafés, offering hot food, ramen, rice balls, fresh coffee, and chilled RTDs; some stores provide seating and microwaves, turning RTD coffee, juices, and alcohol into part of a sit-down meal occasion. Hungry Pursuit+1

Implications (Korea):

  • Korea is already comfortable with fermented products in liquid RTD form (Kimchi Me). That validates the broader idea of savory / umami fermented drinks and gives you a clear benchmark for gut-health storytelling, pack design, and export-friendly claims.

  • RTD coffee and “beauty/health” RTDs (collagen, hangover relief, digestive support) are natural landing spots for kombucha-style or koji-based innovations.

5. Thailand – sugar & salt tax driving healthy RTDs

5.1 Regulatory drivers

  • Sugar tax – full 4th phase (1 April 2025). Thailand’s excise sugar tax on beverages entered its fourth and final phase on 1 April 2025:

    • 10–14 g sugar/L: tax rises from 3 THB to 5 THB per litre.

    • 8–10 g: from 1 THB to 3 THB/L.

    • 6–8 g: from 0.3 THB to 1 THB/L.

    • ≤6 g/L remain exempt. Asia Food Beverages

  • Forthcoming salt tax. The Excise Department is moving ahead with a tiered salt tax similar to the sugar tax, explicitly targeting high-sodium foods and beverages. FFTC Agricultural Policy+3nationthailand+3The Star+3 This is expected to cover snacks, frozen foods, instant noodles and some drinks, pushing early reformulation. FoodNavigator-Asia.com+1

5.2 Healthy beverage market structure

  • A 2025 study of Thailand’s healthy packaged beverage market identifies four dominant trends: sugar-free, low-sugar, functional drinks and natural ingredients, noting that sugar tax is the main driver of this shift and that “almost all segments are focusing on sugar content”. Yamada Spire

  • Case study: Vitaday vitamin water – positioned around vitamin fortification, low sugar, and multiple flavours, illustrating mainstream acceptance of vitamin-fortified, low-sugar RTDs. Yamada Spire

5.3 Concrete RTD trends

  • Low-/no-sugar RTD tea and water. Between April 2021 and March 2022, low-sugar and sugar-free RTD tea and bottled water in Thailand grew 11.8 % and 2.1 % respectively, even while the overall RTD beverage market contracted, underscoring how tax-aligned innovation outperformed the base. gourmetpro.co

  • Functional soft drinks. Examples include Coca-Cola Thailand’s Sprite Lemon+ (zero sugar, with added vitamin B3) and Miss Universe-branded M*U drinks, each variant linked to a health function (beauty, immunity, etc.) with supportive ingredients. gourmetpro.co+1

Implications (Thailand):

  • Any RTD concept that carries sugar above 6 g/L now competes with a built-in cost disadvantage; formulations that are naturally low-sugar via fermentation, or lightly sweetened are structurally advantaged.

  • Sodium will be the next battlefield; for fermented savoury drinks or broths, that means being intentional around salt-reduction techniques, acidification, and flavour layering.

6. Cross-market packaging & format themes

  • Single-serve cans and PET still rule, but cues are shifting. Market snapshots of zero-sugar and low-calorie RTDs highlight cans and PET bottles as the dominant packaging, with sustained growth projected as the main carriers for on-the-go consumption. Fortune Business Insights+2Fortune Business Insights+2

  • Sustainability and labelling.

    • FamilyMart Taiwan’s self-branded tea range with carbon-footprint labels is an early sign that eco-metrics on everyday RTDs will become normalised. family.com.tw

    • Asia-Pacific salt-reduction coverage points to demand for transparent nutrition labelling and reformulation tech, especially as salt and sugar schemes tighten. FoodNavigator-Asia.com

For you, this suggests:

  • Keep using small, recyclable bottles or cans as primary formats, but build in space on-pack for functional claims, fermentation story, and sustainability badges.

  • Think about “progress bars” for sugar and sodium (per 100 mL or per serving) as a visual device in education materials, even if not yet mandated on label.

7. Strategic angles for a fermentation-driven brand

  1. Gut-health RTDs beyond kombucha.

    • Korea’s Kimchi Me shows that consumers accept savoury, probiotic RTDs when positioned clearly around digestion and hangover relief. Grand View Research+3FoodNavigator-Asia.com+3PlanetFood News+3

    • A Taiwanese or regional analogue could leverage koji, rice-based ferments, or vegetable brines with similar gut-health messaging but more approachable flavour (e.g. lightly salted citrus-vegetable tonics, fermented grain drinks).

  2. Low-sugar, tax-resilient formulation platform.

    • Thailand’s sugar and future salt taxes effectively define a “regulatory safe zone”: ≤6 g sugar/L and moderate salt. FFTC Agricultural Policy+3Asia Food Beverages+3nationthailand+3

    • Designing core bases (kombucha, amazake-adjacent drinks, lactic-fermented juices) within this zone gives you cross-border portability.

  3. C-store–ready RTE/RTR (ready-to-reheat) formats.

    • Taiwan and Korea show that convenience stores are the primary incubator of RTE/RTD innovation; Japan uses them to premiumise daily food. Euromonitor+3Taiwan News+3Hungry Pursuit+3

    • RTE fermented sides (ready-to-eat pickles, kimchi-style vegetables, koji-marinated proteins) that pair with RTDs could be pitched as “bundle concepts” for c-stores rather than stand-alone items.

  4. Hybrid traditional-modern narratives.

    • Suntory’s dual strategy (health essences + RTDs) and Narichan’s liquid kimchi both show that traditional tonics can be reframed as modern RTDs without losing authenticity. FoodNavigator-Asia.com+2FoodNavigator-Asia.com+2

    • Koji-based or pickled-vegetable-based drinks clearly fit this lane; the gap is often good UX (texture, flavour profile, pack) rather than science.