Boba tea, which originates from Taiwan, is a cold milk-based drink containing tapioca pearls, while matcha is a finely ground green tea powder most commonly consumed as an iced latte. The hype surrounding these drinks is not new, but their growing appeal in India has even prompted 13-year-old Wagh Bakri to reinvent himself.
“If you look at the younger audience, they are not that keen on traditional hot teas. So there was a need to launch newer variants of tea like bubble teas and iced teas,” said Sanjay Singhal, CEO of the Gujarat-based company. “It’s more for the younger generation and to create excitement in our tea rooms.”
A tea manufacturer operates a network Wagh Bakri Tea Lounges serving freshly brewed tea and snacks. Since this year, it has included cold drinks, such as iced and bubble teas, in its menu.
“People don’t go to a restaurant alone. They go as a group – friends or family and you have to reach out to everyone. Older people may like our teas, but young people may not want to have them,” he said.
The strategy, he said, is already changing who will enter the Wagh Bakri stores. “Aside from revenue, what’s really helped us is that we’re getting a lot of Gen Z and young kids coming into our tea rooms. That’s a segment that would never have come into a tea room before.”
Cold drinks are growing 60% faster than hot drinks, with Asian formats such as matcha and boba witnessing exceptional traction, according to the latest Kearney-Swiggy How India Eats 2025 report. Interested in searching Matcha has jumped 11-fold in the past five years, while searches for boba tea have quadrupled, underscoring how these once niche drinks are quickly entering the mainstream, largely thanks to Gen Z’s willingness to experiment.
Singhal said cold drinks are in demand outside the traditional summer months. “When people go out, they don’t necessarily want to have a hot drink. A cold drink works better as an accompaniment to a meal and you can sit and drink it longer.”
Quick-service restaurant chains, long struggling with subdued consumer demand, are now increasingly seeing cold drinks as a rare bright spot amid the slowdown. New coffee chains, meanwhile, say formats like matcha, boba and iced coffee are reshaping consumption habits rather than following a passing fad.
At coffee chain abCoffee, said founder and CEO Abhijit Anand, cold drinks have become a key lever to attract younger consumers, with Gen Z making up about 54% of the chain’s customer base.
While boba continues to perform well, he said it tends to be more seasonal. Matcha, on the other hand, is emerging as a more durable habit. “Matcha is a real extension of the coffee range. It’s not just an alternative to cold coffee, but a winner in the mix.”
Cold drinks account for nearly 60% of the beverage mix in summer and spring and around 40% even in winter, with Mumbai standing out as a market where cold drinks account for more than half of the year-round sales, Anand said.
According to Rajat Tuli, partner and head of food and beverage at consulting firm Kearney, while boba and matcha were initially popularized by Gen Z as early adopters, they have now found acceptance across age groups. “Their presence in QSRs, cafes and standalone menus suggests that these formats are no longer niche and are likely to remain a fixture for the next few years.”
The innovation of the menu also contributed. According to Tuli, cold formats lend themselves to greater experimentation, resulting in a wider range of variations compared to hot drinks. Younger consumers continue to have a clear preference for cooler drinks, which is driving demand across seasons, he said.
This shift is reflected in the rapid growth of domestic Bubble tea-focused QSRs like Boba Bhai have attracted investor interest and aggressively expanded outside metros. The Bengaluru-based chain, which launched in 2023, has raised institutional capital, including a ₹30 million Series A round led by 8i Ventures and plans to expand its footprint to over 100 outlets across India, including tier 2 and 3 cities, as it aims to make bubble tea a mainstream choice for youth across the country, according to startup data platform Tracxn.
