Source丨FBIF Food & Beverage Innovation In 2025, the ice cup market has become more dynamic. In January this year, Yili Ice Cream announced that Ice Factory would soon launch new ice cups, which can be paired with various beverages to achieve "one cup, one mix." Ice Factory Ice Cup Image source: Yili Ice Cream Mengniu also launched a new ice cup product. In April this year, Mengniu's water ice brand "Ice+" officially announced the launch of its ice cup on Xiaohongshu, with the slogan "Ice + everything, happiness without boundaries." In June this year, Nongfu Spring launched "Pure Transparent Edible Ice" at Sam's Club, a 2kg bag of edible ice priced at 22.8 yuan. These three food and beverage giants have broken the original category boundaries, exploring more possibilities for ready-to-drink ice products by seizing the trend of consumption upgrading. The seemingly simple ice cup competition is actually a comprehensive contest among food giants in consumption scenarios, supply chains, and summer single products. The ice cup, which has been popular since last year, has also attracted many new brands to enter this new market. FBIF contacted Zhang Meng, General Manager of Play Fruit Forest, Wang Qingsong, Partner of Hebei Qianzhong Food Co., Ltd., and Liao Bilin, General Manager of Binglida, to talk about ice cups and new ice-related businesses. This year, there are more ice cup options In 2024, when ice cups first became popular, the biggest consumer complaint was mostly about price: why can pure water ice cups sell for 3-5 yuan? Although ice cups already had different shapes and flavors at that time, most consumers initially perceived them as pure ice cubes, and many brands called them edible ice to distinguish them from homemade ice cubes at home. By 2025, ice cups seem to have undergone a year of quiet "cultivation," stunning everyone this summer. The coffee, lemon, and other fruit-flavored ice cups that were popular last year now have more flavors this year. Oolong tea, guava, bayberry, grape, strawberry, peach, mango... those ingredients commonly used in new tea drinks and beverages have been extracted for flavor and put into small ice cups. Mix Choice Ice Cup Image source: Xiaohongshu In addition to more flavors, the shapes of ice cubes in ice cups have also become more diverse. From the initial square ice and irregular ice, to cylindrical ice, de-burred shaken ice, Collins ice, crescent ice, half-square ice... the ice in ice cups has begun to show differences. Even freshly made coffee and tea shops have made ice cups an important selling point. Many tea shops have launched low-priced ice cups to attract customers. In Shanghai, there is even an ice cup coffee that has caused consumers to queue up to buy: -86°C Dirty. The cup used to make this coffee is pre-frozen in a specialized laboratory-grade refrigerator. When making it, staff wear gloves and use tongs to take the ice cup out of the refrigerator before preparing the coffee. This ice cup innovation made the store the No.1 popular coffee spot in Shanghai within just one month of opening. At the same time, the specifications of ice cups have also become more varied. Previously, the ice content in ice cups was mostly 150-200g, with the cup size close to the medium cup of new tea drinks. However, Binglida's square ice cup launched at the end of last year has 130g of ice, and the cup has become smaller. NOWWA Coffee, on the other hand, has "expanded" the ice cup, launching a 750mL "ton-ton ice bucket," limited to 10,000 buckets per week. Ton-ton Ice Bucket Image source: NOWWA Coffee Xiaohongshu Prices have also become clearly differentiated. Three years ago, the hashtag #No Xuelian Ice in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou# trended on Weibo, when consumers lamented that hard costs such as cold chain and warehousing prevented affordable Xuelian ice from going beyond "Shanhaiguan." Three years later, the 0.5 yuan Xuelian ice has proactively launched an ice cup version, becoming popular again. Last year, when ice cups became a hit, some consumers asked, "Isn't the 0.5 yuan Xuelian ice good enough?" This year, the Xuelian ice cup sold on Douyin costs nearly 1 yuan per cup and can be delivered nationwide. But at the same time, the price polarization of ice cups is quite obvious. Some pure water ice cups retail for over 10 yuan, with brands using unique ice shapes and usage scenarios to raise prices. Binglida's Moon Ice is relatively expensive and belongs to the high-end ice cup series Image source: Binglida Everything related to ice has also changed more in 2025. A Xiaohongshu user posted that in the past, ice cube molds were mostly basic, but this year she bought more varied ice cube molds, including various shapes like small steamed buns, coffee beans, Hello Kitty, and even individually packaged, disposable ice-making bags, which are more diverse than previous products. Other ice products besides ice cups have also begun to grow. Liao Bilin, General Manager of the ice-making brand Binglida, told FBIF that their business is divided into high-end ice, ice cups, and bagged ice, with ice cups growing the fastest, followed by bagged ice: "We found that many families buy bagged ice and put it in the refrigerator, taking it out when they want to drink and putting it in a cup." Nongfu Spring's product recently listed at Sam's Club is also bagged ice. Although the 2kg ice cubes priced at 22.8 yuan have sparked heated discussion, even trending on Weibo, in multiple regions, the bagged ice sold out on the same day it was listed. Nongfu Spring Pure Transparent Edible Ice Bagged Ice Image source: Nongfu Spring
Pure Water Ice Cups and Flavored Ice Cups
Heading Down Two Different Tracks
The ice cup business has actually been around for many years, and even the innovations that are more noticeable this year have been around for two years. In 2023, Tiao Bing Quwei launched fruit ice cups. At that time, fruit ice cups were made by freezing fresh fruit together with the ice cup, rather than the flavored ice cups that focus more on seasoning today. Hebei Qianzhong Food, formerly known as Tiao Bing Quwei, with partner Wang Qingsong introducing to FBIF that fruit ice cups were their pioneering product, and they established a new brand "Tiao Bing Quwei" specifically for the ice cup business. Since launching fruit ice cups in 2023, they have tried many different types of fruit ice cups. In Wang Qingsong's view, the positioning of pure water ice cups and fruit ice cups is similar to Nongfu Spring's bottled water versus Oriental Leaf and ShuiRong C100. He believes that the emergence of fruit-flavored ice cups aligns with the trend of upgrading consumer demand: "When consumers gradually accept this form, they not only pursue the coolness of ice cups but also hope for more flavors to appear." Fruit Ice Cup Launched by Tiao Bing Quwei Image source: Tiao Bing Quwei If Tiao Bing Quwei was once encouraging consumers to mix their own ice drinks, now more brands have started to prepare the ice directly for consumers, and some even only need to add water to enjoy a drink. For example, the brand "Play Fruit Forest," established in 2024, follows this product route. Play Fruit Forest's ice cups are presented in the form of ice balls, and in their guava lemon fresh fruit ice cup, the content of red-fleshed guava pulp and lemon juice is each greater than or equal to 20%. Zhang Meng, General Manager of Play Fruit Forest, said that they initially focused on food supply chain innovation, but after discovering the potential of the ice cup track, they officially entered the market in 2024. In her view, ice cups can meet some of the unmet needs of consumers in the new tea drinks field. She believes that compared with new tea drinks, ice cups have lower product costs, more affordable prices, and higher convenience and daily popularity: "It doesn't require complex mixing; many consumers say the simplest way to drink it is just to add water." Play Fruit Forest Ice Cup Image source: Play Fruit Forest While flavored ice cups are becoming increasingly diverse, some brands stick to the traditional pure water ice cup track. Currently, Nongfu Spring and Yili's ice cup products are mainly pure water ice cups, with no flavored versions yet. The brand "Binglida" also adheres to this route. At present, Binglida has only launched one lemon-flavored ice cup, which includes lemon slices and kumquats, while the rest are ordinary pure ice cups. Liao Bilin positions Binglida as the "great supporting role." He believes that if coffee is the protagonist, then the supporting role—the ice cup—only makes coffee more delicious: "When we communicated with procurement systems like ALDI, we found that no one buys ice alone; when buying ice, they always pair it with other drinks." In addition, Liao Bilin said that Binglida is also exploring more segmented scenarios. For example, its "Moon Ice" satisfies consumers' pursuit of aesthetics and can be paired with high-end drinks; "Big Square Ice" is suitable for pairing with foreign liquor; in the future, they plan to develop a "double-hole ice cup" for couples; and other scenario-based products, such as small or lidless ice cups. Binglida Big Square Ice Cup Launched at FamilyMart Image source: Binglida Whether flavored or pure water, ice cups have seen significant sales increases in summer and have a clear driving effect on other beverages. According to the "2024 Summer Instant Retail Ice Products and Alcoholic Beverages Consumption Insight Report" released by Ele.me and NielsenIQ, in June 2024, Ele.me's beverage and alcohol orders increased by 22% year-on-year, while ice cup delivery volume increased by 350% year-on-year. The report points out that ice cups have a significant driving effect on other beverages. When ice cups sell well, sales of highly related categories such as cola, purified water, and beer also increase. Among them, delivery volume paired with fruit and vegetable drinks increased by 320% year-on-year, and delivery volume paired with alcoholic beverages like beer also increased by about 300% year-on-year. Head Brands Enter, Pioneers Make Choices Ice cups did not just appear last year; they just had a breakout moment last year. When Nongfu Spring ice cups and Mixue Ice City's 1 yuan ice cup became hot topics in the market, the ice cup industry attracted the attention of many brands. Zhang Meng introduced to FBIF that the threshold for the ice cup business is not high. The cost for ice cream factories to switch to ice cups is the lowest; they only need to add equipment such as ice ball extruders and cup fillers, and an investment of one million yuan can add an ice cup production line. That's why many ice factories and ice cream factories were able to complete transformation in a short time, quickly follow up, and launch ice cup products. Xiaode Ice Cup Image source: Hema Before ice factories saw the trend and transformed into ice cup factories, there were already pioneers in the ice cup market. These pioneers chose very different development paths when facing the entry of head brands. According to Wang Qingsong, when ice cups had not yet become popular in 2023, the main players in the Chinese market included Xiaode, Binglida, Tiao Bing Quwei, and Ice Limit. These four ice factories had systematic ice cup products and were also OEM factories for many convenience store and supermarket channels. Liao Bilin of Binglida also confirmed this: "There may have been some changes in the past two years, but in the early days, it was mainly these four." Among them, Xiaode Food was established as early as 2002, developed ice cup products in 2012, and launched them in Beijing and Tianjin markets the following year, occupying a place in Japanese-style convenience stores. Binglida, with 26 years of ice machine manufacturing experience, started its ice cup business in 2019, and its pioneering products such as Moon Ice and de-burred shaken ice demonstrated technical advantages. Binglida Ice Machine Image source: Binglida In contrast, Tiao Bing Quwei and Ice Limit entered later, but they focused on the ice cup business from the start. Ice Limit quickly opened up the market in the channel by relying on cooperation with 7-Eleven convenience stores. The entry of head brands has brought new changes to the industry. A senior industry insider revealed that currently, Xiaode and Tiao Bing Quwei's production lines are almost occupied by OEM needs of well-known brands, and their own brands have gradually faded from the market; while Ice Limit and Binglida continue to expand channels and launch new products to increase market share. In the choice between branding and OEM, the pioneers in the ice cup industry have also taken different paths. Tiao Bing Quwei chose to do OEM for head brands. Wang Qingsong said that last year, when ice cups became popular, they almost completed a financing round. In the early days, Tiao Bing Quwei was in a state of separation of production and sales. At that time, the cooperative factory of Tiao Bing Quwei concealed its liabilities, and the investment institution discovered the huge liabilities of the cooperative factory during the due diligence phase, which ultimately led to the failure of the financing. This is also the calm side behind the heated discussion of ice cups last year. Despite much discussion, investment institutions contacted several ice factories, but ultimately did not make a move to complete financing. After the financing failure, Tiao Bing Quwei's development stalled for several months. They then shifted direction and built their own factory with 100% self-owned funds, which became a turning point in Tiao Bing Quwei's route. Tiao Bing Quwei Ice Cup Image source: Hema At the same time, Nongfu Spring's ice cups began to spread to more and more channels, and more consumers gained basic awareness of ice cups. Wang Qingsong compared the shipment rates and production capacity of Nongfu Spring in 2024 with the four "pioneers," saying that at that time, the production capacity of the four factories still had advantages. But the entry of head brands still brought considerable pressure to practitioners. Wang Qingsong admitted that compared with head brands, small and medium-sized enterprises cannot compete in terms of brand awareness or capital strength. Coupled with the financing failure, they felt they had lost the first-mover advantage. Qianzhong, formerly known as Tiao Bing Quwei, decided to aim to be a high-quality OEM factory, providing OEM services for top-tier clients. "We want to be a factory with relatively good quality. Many production-oriented enterprises in China survive very well by relying on OEM. From the perspective of ice cups, we will be a particularly quality-focused OEM factory, deeply pursuing this route, and it is not a bad track. We feel we are doing very well now, because the brand OEM clients we have received are basically the top-tier clients (brands)." In Wang Qingsong's view, the future of ice cups is not limited to convenience stores. The entry of head brands will further sink ice cups into the market. Brands like Mengniu and Yili, which already have a large number of freezers deployed, will also help the growth of the ice cup market size. Nongfu Spring Ice Cup Image source: Nongfu Spring On the other hand, Binglida places more hope on instant retail to drive business growth. Liao Bilin believes that the 30-minute delivery business model of instant retail will open up new opportunities for ice cup products. Liao Bilin said that in order to better build the brand, Binglida once refused the ice machine procurement needs of food and beverage giant brands to buy more development time for itself. Binglida Factory's Two-Stage Reverse Osmosis Filtration to Extract Ultra-Pure Water Image source: Binglida Liao Bilin also saw the enthusiasm of ice cup companies. He found that even in a region in Hunan Province, 4-5 ice factories have started to enter the ice cup business, and he also saw big brands joining this track. But in the face of competition, he still has not changed his determination to build a brand. He believes that the entry of big brands will make the market more prosperous, but not every brand's positioning is the same: "Some competitors are still mainly OEM. Of course, in the future, they may also open ice factories, but their route is different from ours. Our products are positioned higher than theirs. We have a similar product positioning to Nongfu Spring; we want to make better products." Last year, Binglida's ice cup sales multiplied several times compared with the previous year, and Liao Bilin estimates that this year's business will double or triple again. Binglida's factory is located in Shilou Town, Guangzhou, where there are many industrial zones. As practitioners, they often hear news that nearby factories have closed down. But Binglida's factory, which invested nearly 60 million yuan, has not stopped production since workers returned from the Spring Festival holiday. Even with 24-hour production, supply still cannot meet demand, and they are currently preparing a new factory. Binglida Factory in Shilou Town Image source: Binglida
Is Ice an "Addictive" Business?
Sweets, burgers, pizza, coffee... these are all addictive foods that consumers find hard to resist. The sugar, salt, fat, chili, and caffeine they contain have an endless attraction for consumers. Liao Bilin also defines ice as an "addictive" food: "Young people are already used to adding ice. It's just that in the past, it was too difficult to get ice. When it becomes easier and easier to get ice, drinking iced drinks will form a habit." He has seen changes in consumer habits—initially, everyone just wanted to drink beverages; later, they began to want cold drinks; today, what they need has become iced drinks. With ice cups, convenience stores have effectively expanded their refrigerators. Consumers who originally wanted to buy a drink from the freezer might now buy an ice cup and drink several beverages with it. This is also what convenience stores want to see. Liao Bilin said: "Now foot traffic is declining, so convenience stores are thinking about how to increase the average transaction value." Promotional Material Placed in Convenience Stores Image source: Binglida According to data from Zhiyanzhan Industry Research Institute, in Japanese convenience stores, the annual consumption of disposable ice cups has reached 2.57 billion cups, making ice cups as popular a consumer product as beverages. The "2023 Instant Retail Ice Products and Ice Drinks Consumption Trend White Paper" shows that in the next three years, the growth rate of ice products and ice drinks in instant retail channels is expected to reach 39%, far exceeding the overall growth rate of 8%. It is estimated that by 2026, the instant retail sales scale of ice products and ice drinks will achieve more than fourfold growth, expected to exceed 63 billion yuan, and ice products and ice drinks are expected to become a landmark category in instant retail. Daqiaodao, which once OEM-produced ice cups for Hema Fresh, has also launched its own ice cup products. This shows that the ice cup market, which grew significantly in 2024, is currently attracting many practitioners to invest and layout, with increasing entrants, and attention has gone beyond the ice cup business itself. Daqiaodao Ice Cup Image source: Daqiaodao A senior industry insider revealed that Nongfu Spring's move into ice cups is not a small-scale endeavor. As far as he knows, Nongfu Spring has already built three factories, and the brand's layout proves that Nongfu Spring is optimistic about this ice-related business in the long term. But currently, the ice products launched by head brands are all pure water ice cups, with no flavored ice cups yet. The flavored ice track, where giants have not yet entered, has become one of the directions for many new brands to "involution." Play Fruit Forest has chosen such a path. In addition to ice cups, Play Fruit Forest is also researching ice corners, ice balls, and other businesses. Zhang Meng said that the Play Fruit Forest team is also continuously committed to innovation and breakthroughs in flavored ice in multiple fields such as tea drinks and catering, and has now developed double-color ice balls, multi-color ice balls, gradient ice balls, filled ice balls, and shaped ice balls with real flowers and plants inside. Ice, from a "supporting role" at the bottom of a cup to a plus point for a drink, may become a differentiating ingredient for catering brands. Play Fruit Forest Ice Cup Image source: Play Fruit Forest From instant retail to supermarkets, from catering outlets to freshly made tea drinks, ice cup products are becoming increasingly diverse. And convenience stores, as the primary battlefield for ice cups, are also displaying increasingly varied edible ice products, from ice cups and bagged ice to ice bricks and ice balls, carrying humanity's most straightforward desire for low temperatures in the hot summer.