From '0 sugar' to 'smells good,' water substitutes are quietly upgrading.
In the past few years, '0 sugar' water has been the most sought-after category on beverage shelves. These products, with clean ingredient lists and low-calorie promises, precisely hit consumers' obsession with health.
But this generation of young people wants more than that. They want it to look good, taste good, and smell good—ideally, they want a sense of healing the moment they twist off the cap.
This spring's market response confirms this shift. Hema's Morning Dew Sakura Water and Jasmine Water sold out within two days of launch. As of now, Sakura Water remains the top new beverage on Hema's charts, with sales up over 5x month-on-month; Jasmine Water tops the bestseller list for on-the-go drinks. Brands like Minute Maid, Shine Memory, and Ercifang are also betting on floral flavors, heating up this track.
This craze didn't come out of nowhere. In 2024, Innova Market Insights' global flavor trends ranked 'floral healing' first, predicting that floral and botanical flavors would lead innovation in food and beverages worldwide. In other words, using floral scents to win over consumers is becoming a clear consensus in the global beverage industry.
Looking at the broader consumer landscape, this is actually a major shift from 'functional satisfaction' to 'emotional resonance.' Not just beverages, but beauty, fragrance, home, snacks—almost every category targeting young people is trying to answer the same question: besides solving a specific need, what feeling can we give users? Floral scent is just one concrete manifestation of this trend in the beverage sector.
Floral scents take center stage in beverages
If you go back a few years, jasmine and sakura appearing on beverage labels were likely as flavor suffixes like 'jasmine green tea' or 'sakura white peach.' Floral notes were used to enhance fruit flavors, brighten tea, or soften milk. They were important but never the star.
Image source: Xiaohongshu user @落落ing
Now things are different. Floral scents are being singled out as the core identity of a beverage. This change may seem small, but it reflects the evolution of the entire 'water substitute' market.
Looking back, unsweetened tea first opened the door, getting consumers to accept that 'water can have flavor but no sugar.' Then electrolyte water came along, meeting the need for 'replenishing after sweating.' Then health waters and botanical drinks went a step further, telling stories about 'benefits for the body.' Each step pushed the 'water substitute' category forward.
But at this point, the industry hit a wall. When almost all beverages are labeled '0 sugar, 0 fat, 0 calories,' consumers can't tell them apart. Shelves are lined with a dozen unsweetened teas that taste similar, leaving only channel and price as differentiators. Brands need a new hook—something that makes a product memorable, talked about, and actively chosen.
Floral scents happen to hit this window.
They have several natural advantages:
First, floral scents don't require added sugar, fitting the 'light burden' positioning of water substitutes.
Second, floral scents are highly recognizable—jasmine is jasmine, rose is rose—unlike vague 'mixed fruit flavors.'
Third, floral scents come with emotional associations: sakura evokes spring, jasmine evokes freshness, rose evokes romance—all intuitive reactions that don't need consumer education.
There's a saying in the industry: 'In the past, beverages competed on the tongue; now they're competing on the nose.' Floral light drinks emphasize the first impression upon opening the cap and the lingering aroma between mouth and nose. The taste is still light, but that wisp of fragrance makes drinking water less monotonous.
From taste to smell, this is ostensibly a shift in communication, but it's actually the inevitable direction of consumption upgrading. When basic health needs are widely met, consumers naturally seek higher-level pleasure. The rise of floral light drinks signals the arrival of a broader 'sensory beverage' era—future water substitutes must not only quench thirst and be healthy, but also smell good, look good, and even resonate emotionally.
The emotional business on the bottle
If the core competition in the beverage industry was once 'quenching thirst' and 'tasting good,' now the answer is quietly changing.
According to iiMedia Research, China's emotional consumption market grew from 1.63 trillion yuan in 2022 to 2.72 trillion yuan in 2025, and is expected to exceed 3 trillion yuan by 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of over 12%.
This growth rate proves the strong momentum of emotional consumption as a new growth pole, and further shows that in an environment of abundant material supply, purchase decisions increasingly depend not on 'what I need' but on 'what kind of feeling I want.'
Floral beverages are hitting this sweet spot. But different brands' approaches reflect their different understandings of 'emotion.'
Some brands bet on 'participation.' For example, Hema emphasizes 'DIY mixing' in its floral water promotions, encouraging consumers to add ice, coffee, or matcha at home. This turns consumers from passive drinkers into active creators, extending the product's value from 'quenching thirst' to 'self-expression.' Each cup you mix is unique, and that sense of participation is itself emotional value.
Image source: Xiaohongshu screenshot
Other brands focus more on 'healing.' Ercifang, co-founded by a Proya co-founder, directly brings aromatherapy concepts into beverages. Consumers comment: 'Place it on your desk, twist off the cap, and take a whiff—it's like lighting aromatherapy. Before even drinking, your mood improves.' This 'drink as therapy' positioning blurs the lines between beverages, fragrances, and light functional foods.
Image source: Xiaohongshu user @不爱洗头爱干饭
More interestingly, some brands put interactivity on the bottle itself. In 2025, Minute Maid launched a 'rub bottle' where consumers rub a specially coated fruit pattern to release the corresponding fruit scent. Shine Memory has launched sakura-scented bottles for several years running, where 'rubbing' the bottle releases sakura aroma. Hema's Morning Dew Sakura Water and Jasmine Water, as well as Ercifang's aromatherapy herbal tea series, all use such designs to let consumers complete an 'smell the fragrance and enjoy spring' interaction before tasting.
Image source: Xiaohongshu screenshot
Zooming out globally, this wave is even more pronounced. German brand Air Up uses scent rings on the bottle's mouth to release aroma, making the brain 'think' it's drinking flavored water when it's actually plain water. This innovation helped it achieve $140 million in revenue in 2024, covering 11 countries. Innova data also shows that from H2 2018 to H1 2023, floral-flavored new products accounted for 6.3% globally, with chamomile, honeysuckle, and rose growing 32%, 21%, and 13%, respectively.
Image source: Air Up
In my view, consumers are willing to pay for these products not because of fancier ingredients, but for the fruit and floral scents on the bottle, the anticipation of twisting off the cap, the sense of accomplishment in mixing a special drink, or a moment of relaxation in the office.
Final thoughts
From 'healthy' and 'tasty' to 'color, aroma, and taste' all in one, this wave of floral beverages reflects not just a category opportunity, but a shift in consumer mindset.
When 'sugar-free,' 'low-calorie,' and '0 fat' have become standard, brands must re-answer a basic question: besides quenching thirst, what else can a bottle of water offer consumers? For now, the answers center on emotion, experience, and ritual.
But it's important to stay calm: floral scent itself doesn't constitute an absolute barrier. Just because Hema's jasmine water sells well doesn't mean the next brand making osmanthus water will replicate that success. As more players enter, product homogenization is almost inevitable. At that point, flavor fidelity, sustained appeal, and whether a spring limited edition can become a year-round staple are challenges brands will face.
But at least for now, this race over scent and emotion is just beginning. From Hema's two-day sellout to Minute Maid's 'rub bottle' fruit scents, from Shine Memory's sakura-scented bottles to Ercifang's aromatherapy herbal teas, different brands are exploring the same question in their own ways: how to sell a bottle of water as more than just water.
The answer isn't written yet, but the direction is clear. In the future, the winners won't just be brands that can 'make products,' but those that can 'understand people.'