Beverage trends · Soft drinks
Soft Drink Trends 2027: What Is Actually Changing in Soda
Beverage trends · Soft drinks
What is coming up in soft drinks in 2027 is a fixture that has stopped rewarding the thing that won 2025. Better-for-you soda worked, and because it worked the benefit is now available to every incumbent and every retailer, so a fibre badge no longer sorts one pack from another.
Four structural shifts sit underneath. The functional benefit is becoming a feature of everybody's range rather than a category. Reformulation is turning sugar into a positioning constraint. Soda is being bought by adults at dayparts it used to lose, and flavour intensity is the symptom. And the unit actually shopped is the multipack, in a category bought on promotion and shadowed by a cheaper own-label version of itself.
For a brand, 2027 is the year to decide what a soda pack competes on once the benefit is assumed. The three design trends below are the pack-level consequences.
Soft drinks is growing in value while the parts that used to carry it shrink, and the figures describe redistribution rather than expansion.
| What it measures | The figure | Source | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scale of the US carbonated soft drink category and where growth sits inside it | The US CSD market reached an estimated $55.8bn in 2025, a 6.2% increase on 2024; diet CSDs accounted for $19.3bn of it with an estimated 11.8% growth in 2025, while full-calorie cola fell 8% and fruit-flavoured soda declined 7% | Mintel data reported by Beverage Industry | 6 July 2026 |
| Scale reached by the first wave of prebiotic soda brands | Olipop and Poppi between them totalled about $1 billion-plus in retail sales in 2025 | BevNET, Jeffrey Klineman | 19 February 2026 |
| Reformulation pressure still ahead of the category | The UK Soft Drinks Industry Levy's minimum sugar threshold falls from 5g to 4.5g per 100ml in January 2028, bringing approximately 12% of the soft drinks market into scope, on a government central assumption that 65% of products brought into scope are reformulated | Institute for Fiscal Studies | 25 March 2026 |
| How much sugar reduction the category has already absorbed | Average sugar content of soft drinks has fallen almost 50% since 2018, with seven in ten soft drinks now sold in the UK being low-sugar or sugar-free | William Watkins, British Soft Drinks Association president, reported by FoodBev Media | 25 May 2026 |
| How narrow flavour demand actually is in the adult soft drinks set | 80% of adult soft drinks sales in the UK Off-Premise are generated by five flavours: apple, orange, lemonade, ginger and grape | NIQ | 26 January 2026 |
| The private-label pressure a soda pack stands next to | US private label sales reached $282.8bn in 2025 with dollar sales up 3.3% against 1.2% for national brands, share rising from 19.1% to over 21% in five years; private label beverage dollar sales grew 4.8% in 2025 | PLMA and Circana data reported by BeverageDaily | 7 April 2026 |
Read together, I take these figures to describe a category with money in it and nowhere obvious to put a new brand. Value is moving to zero and diet lines inside the biggest houses, the functional entrant has been bought, sugar is legislated downward, and the flavours shoppers buy are a shortlist own label covers. A 2027 soft drink is not competing for a benefit or a flavour; it is competing for a reason to be chosen at full price in front of a cheaper pack that tastes similar.
Sidenote. Every brand, studio and launch named here is named as publicly observable evidence of a pattern. None is presented as a client, as my work, or as a recommendation.
Prebiotic soda has stopped being a category and become a feature any soft drink range can add, which changes what a better-for-you brand has to own.
The first wave proved the demand and handed it to the incumbents. BevNET reported on 19 February 2026 that Olipop and Poppi together totalled about $1 billion-plus in retail sales in 2025, and that PepsiCo's marketing approach for Poppi positions it as "a new, friendly face of soda" rather than leading on the benefit. Coca-Cola entered under an existing juice brand: Marketing Dive reported on 18 February 2025 that Simply Pop launched with six grams of fibre as "the juicy new soda."
When a benefit can be added to a line that already has distribution, shelf space and a shopper, the fibre claim becomes the cost of entry to the set rather than a reason to be picked inside it. A challenger built entirely on the benefit now shares it with the two largest houses in the category and, before long, with own label.
The decision is what carries the proposition once the benefit is assumed, because if the answer is still the benefit the brand competes on plant capacity.
Reformulation has moved from a recipe question to a positioning constraint, because the sugar level of a 2027 soft drink is set partly outside the brand.
The UK case is clearest because the timetable is published. The Institute for Fiscal Studies reported on 25 March 2026 that the levy's minimum sugar threshold falls from 5g to 4.5g per 100ml in January 2028. That brings approximately 12% of the soft drinks market into scope, on a government central assumption that 65% of affected products are reformulated.
Much has already been absorbed. British Soft Drinks Association president William Watkins, reported by FoodBev Media on 25 May 2026, put average sugar content down almost 50% since 2018, with seven in ten soft drinks sold in the UK low-sugar or sugar-free. In the US the pressure is commercial rather than legislated: Mintel data reported by Beverage Industry on 6 July 2026 shows diet CSDs up 11.8% in 2025 while full-calorie cola fell 8%.
Once most of the fixture is low or no sugar, low sugar stops being a claim and becomes a specification. The brands that will struggle are those whose distinctiveness was the sugar-free badge, because the badge is about to be universal and the taste gap it excused no longer is.
The decision is whether sweetness is part of what you sell or a constraint you design around.
The soft drink is being bought by adults at dayparts it used to lose, and flavour intensity is the symptom of that shift rather than a trend in its own right.
The evidence sits at the premium and mixer end. At the UK Soft Drinks Conference 2026, reported by FoodBev Media on 25 May 2026, Fever-Tree co-founder Tim Warrilow described the brand's fastest-growing segment as people drinking its products soft rather than as mixers, and the proposition as "crafted, with fantastic ingredients, developed for adults and not for children." NIQ reported on 26 January 2026 that soft drinks and mixers had risen to 15% of the total UK On-Premise market from 14.8% a year earlier, with flavoured carbonates up 9.5% year on year in that channel.
Flavour is where this becomes legible on a pack. Kerry's forecast, reported by BeverageDaily on 20 February 2026, named "flavour-maxxing" alongside swangy, swalty, swour and swavory profiles; Imbibe's 2027 forecast, reported by BeverageDaily on 6 July 2026, put acid-forward citrus among seven trends for US beverages. Acidity is promoted because the drink is asked to sit beside food and stand in for alcohol, and sweetness is the wrong tool for both jobs.
The decision is which occasion the range is built for, because an adult evening soda and a lunchbox soda rarely share a brand or a price ceiling.
The multipack, not the single serve, is the unit most soft drinks are shopped in, and that makes price-pack architecture a brand decision rather than a commercial one.
Soft drinks is bought on deal: search the fixture's own commercial language and the results return promotional mechanics rather than brands. Standing behind that is own label: PLMA and Circana data reported by BeverageDaily on 7 April 2026 put US private label sales at $282.8bn in 2025, with dollar sales up 3.3% against 1.2% for national brands and share rising from 19.1% to over 21%.
A soda that only makes sense at a promotional multipack price has priced its own brand out of the decision, because the shopper is comparing cost per can against a pack that never claimed to be anything else. The chilled single can, the take-home multipack and the large format are three shopping trips with three competitor sets, and a range treating them as one product in three sizes has no answer when the retailer prices the largest.
The decision is which format carries margin and which carries volume, taken before artwork.
Two signals reaching soft drinks for 2027 come from outside the category, and each changes what a soda is expected to be rather than how it tastes.
Coffee shop culture and cold foam. Spate reported on 23 September 2025 that cold foam's growth was driven substantially by TikTok, on a US Google Search and TikTok views index, and expected it to move beyond coffee into formats including ready-to-drink cans. What this means: texture is becoming a purchase reason, and the reference drink in a young shopper's head is assembled in front of them. A soda that arrives finished competes against one that gets built, and the pack has to say which it is.
Fast food, confectionery and the customised serve. Dirty soda is a foodservice behaviour before it is a product, and the flavour language around it comes from the sweet aisle. Imbibe's 2027 forecast, reported by BeverageDaily on 6 July 2026, defines newstalgia through "soda fountain culture, candy, and Quick Service Restaurant customisation", and lists cotton candy and cereal milk under it. Tastepoint by IFF's predictions, reported on 2 February 2026, include cherry, limoncello, tiramisu and cola itself.
What this means: the fountain sets the reference for what a soda can be. A sealed pack cannot compete on customisation, and it has to promise dessert-level flavour while the liquid loses sugar. Appetite gets built by design rather than by sweetness.
What it is. Shelf-block design treats the facing group as the smallest designed unit: colour, mark position and artwork bleed are engineered so adjacent packs assemble into one composition, and the single can is a fragment of it. It is a ruling about scale of attention, taken before any SKU is drawn.
Why now. The chilled and ambient sets are crowded, and increasingly shared with own label, whose packs are built to sit next to yours.
Magpie Studio's Purdey's identity states that "on shelf, cans connect loop-to-loop so the range reads as one flowing composition," on a project page last modified 30 March 2026. The work took third place in Functional Beverages at the DIELINE Awards 2026, announced 6 May 2026.
The largest brand in the category is doing the same thing. Coca-Cola's refresh, announced on 20 July 2026, makes the Dynamic Ribbon the anchor across cans, coolers and vending. The Brand Hopper reported on 27 July 2026 that the wordmark returns to a vertical orientation on cans, reversing a decade of horizontal treatment. A vertical wordmark is a block decision rather than a pack decision, because its advantage only appears when the can is repeated.
What it demands of the pack. Four rulings, all made at range level rather than SKU level:
How it fails. It fails when the block is designed for a facing count the brand does not have: at two facings instead of eight, the pattern reads as a fragment and the can carries nothing. It fails again when flavour is subordinated so completely that a shopper cannot find the variant they came for. What works is treating the block and the lone can as two deliverables from one set of assets.
What it is. Appetite-first hierarchy leads the pack with the drink's sensory promise — fruit, fizz, colour, flavour name — and demotes the functional claim to a supporting position, so the pack reads as a soft drink first. It is a hierarchy ruling with a naming consequence, not a change of style.
Why now. The first prebiotic wave taught the fixture that a benefit badge earns consideration and nothing else. Beverage Industry put it plainly on 15 June 2026: "Function gets you considered. Packaging gets you chosen."
The design direction is already visible. DIELINE's 2026 Trend Report, published 1 December 2025, named "Clinical with Soul" — science-forward design "softened with just enough humanity to feel inviting rather than sterile." DIELINE reported on 24 February 2025 that Wedge's identity for Live Soda gives the can a nostalgic feel "more at home in a vintage diner than a health food aisle." It reported on 29 April 2026 that Deuce's design for the UK's Heaven Soda moves away from "the 'safe' aesthetic of traditional health drinks."
What it demands of the pack. Four decisions, and the third one is irreversible:
How it fails. It fails when appetite is applied as decoration over an unchanged clinical layout — fruit photography on a supplement pack, which reads as sweetened medicine. It fails harder when the brand name is the claim: the badge can be dialled down and the logo cannot. The decision underneath is whether the benefit is the brand or a property of the product.
What it is. Heritage reissue is an editing decision: going through an archive asset by asset and ruling which elements are reproduced literally, which are redrawn for current production, and which stay in the archive. The brief is subtractive, and the output has to carry variants the original never had.
Why now. Reissue is being rewarded rather than tolerated. JKR's work for Schweppes took first place in Soft Drinks and Juices at the DIELINE Awards 2026, announced 6 May 2026.
Creative Boom reported on 2 June 2026 that the redesign draws on 18th-century serif lettering, revives the fountain symbol referencing the Great Exhibition of 1851, and brings back the Clive the Leopard mascot under the platform "With Time Comes Taste". DesignRush reported on 8 June 2026 that the skittle bottle was adapted to a one-litre PET format and the yellow ribbon reinstated. Imbibe's 2027 newstalgia direction, reported by BeverageDaily on 6 July 2026, is built on soda fountain culture — so the archive gets read for what it evokes rather than reproduced.
What it demands of the pack. Three pieces of work, the first of them before any drawing starts:
How it fails. It fails when the whole archive is reinstated: every element becomes load-bearing, nothing can be added, and the pack reads as a costume that cannot extend to a new flavour. It fails again when a revival is mistaken for a strategy — the archive pack outsells the range and the brand has told its shopper the present version is inferior. What makes it survivable is deciding in advance which two or three assets are permanent.
If these shifts are real for your project, the decisions that change are early ones.
The benefit has to sit underneath the proposition, because a claim the largest houses and own label also carry cannot be the reason to choose you. Sugar becomes a design constraint with a timetable attached. Occasion has to be stated rather than implied, and wanting both the adult evening and the family multipack usually means two brands. And the pack gets designed as a block, because the object the shopper meets is a wall of cans beside a cheaper version of the same idea.
Category explains where a soft drink sits on a planogram. Occasion reveals what it has to beat at the moment of choice, and here that set is wider than the category map suggests:
That is what my Share of Occasion lens is for. It looks past category share to the moments in which different drinks compete for the same choice — which in soft drinks is usually the difference between a brand that owns an adult evening and one that ends up in a family multipack it was never designed for.
The gate is whether a shift is real for your project rather than for the category. A trend can be structural in soft drinks and still be the wrong thing for one brand to build on, and that difference decides whether it touches the proposition or only a variant. That is what the test at beverage trend or fad is for, and if the benefit is genuinely the product the decisions sit closer to functional beverage trends.
Three things getting attention in soft drinks will not carry a brand.
The prebiotic badge treated as a position. The claim earns entry to the set and sorts nothing inside it. BevNET reported on 19 February 2026 that Olipop and Poppi together reached about $1 billion-plus in retail sales in 2025, and both now sit inside or alongside major portfolios. A property that a $55.8bn category, per Mintel data reported by Beverage Industry on 6 July 2026, can add to lines that already have distribution is a specification, not a position.
Dirty soda packaged as a product. The whole appeal of dirty soda is the build: the customer chooses the syrup, the cream and the ice. Sealing a finished version into a can removes the mechanism that made it spread and leaves a sweet variant competing against the cheapest ones in the fixture.
Limited-edition heritage drops used as a growth plan. Reissues generate coverage and short-term volume, and they also teach a shopper that the archive is better than the range. Run often enough, the brand's own history becomes its main competitor. A reissue earns its cost when it changes the permanent identity.
I decide what the drink is for, at which occasion and daypart, in which format and pack architecture, at what price position, and what the pack must say and survive. I don't decide whether the product can be made, sold or claimed.
Formulation and sweetener systems, sensory and shelf-life work, carbonation specification, ingredient and fibre sourcing, nutrition and health claim substantiation, levy and threshold compliance, front-of-pack nutrition labelling, trademark registration, manufacturing, co-packing and route to market all belong to laboratories, technical consultants, regulatory advisers, IP lawyers, co-packers and distribution partners. A specialist briefed against a decision produces a better answer than one asked to supply it.
This matters more in soft drinks than in most categories: sugar thresholds are legislated on published timetables and vary by market, gut-health language is scrutinised, and front-of-pack schemes are in progress rather than settled. Design the pack so its argument does not depend on a claim that may not survive.
Run a shift through how to tell a beverage trend from a fad before it touches the proposition. If the functional benefit is genuinely the product, functional beverage trends is closer; if the drink competes for an occasion that used to belong to alcohol, RTD trends frames it better.
Once a shift is judged worth building on, the work in soft drinks is mostly pack work: the hierarchy, the block, the range navigation, the multipack outer, the formats by occasion, and the assets that stay recognisable at two metres and at thumbnail size. That is what Beverage Packaging Design is for — one connected pack system rather than a set of labels.
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Written by Flor Gómez. I'm a beverage brand strategist and trained oenologist. I've worked nine harvests across Argentina, Napa, Burgundy and Croatia, spent years on the producer side of export and commercial work, and now build beverage brands around the occasions people actually choose them. I write about the decisions founders have to make before a specialist can be briefed.
Only if the brand is prepared to be that benefit permanently. A name carrying the claim cannot demote it once the claim is universal, and it caps the range at products the claim fits. A name describing the drink or the occasion can absorb a benefit, or drop it.
By being legible as a different decision rather than a better execution of the same one. Own label competes on cost per can inside a familiar visual convention, so a brand copying that convention argues on the axis it loses. The usable answers are format, occasion, serve and a distinctive asset findable at two metres.
It depends where the drink is consumed. Glass earns its cost in venues, at tables and wherever the bottle is seen by someone other than the drinker, and costs weight and breakage everywhere else. Decide the occasion first, because one format across all occasions subsidises the wrong one.
Redesigning the single can and inferring the multipack and the block from it. The outer is the unit shopped in grocery, the lone chilled can the unit shopped in convenience, and the block is what a shopper sees first. Designed can-first, a range produces a good can, an unnavigable outer and a fixture that reads as noise. ---
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The occasion lens
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