While Atlanta may be known as the home of Coca-Cola, it’s also home to other drink companies, including Monarch Beverage Co., The Lemon Perfect Company, Cirrus Beverages, and The Zero Co. 

These four companies are part of a growing market for nonalcoholic and functional beverages, with the latter meant to boost wellness by incorporating prebiotics and fruit and vegetable supplements or promoting benefits to boost the metabolism or help people relax, sleep, or give them energy.

Recent studies indicate that people between the ages of 18 and 34 are consuming less alcohol than previous generations, citing the health risks associated with even moderate drinking. Instead, young people are increasingly reaching for prebiotic sodas, fortified fruit and vegetable drinks, CBD-infused drinks, electrolyte beverages, and enhancers for water like collagen and Liquid IV.

The big business of functional beverages

By 2030, the functional beverage market could be worth close to $340 billion as companies aim branding at Gen Z and young Millennials looking to forego consuming alcohol and traditional soft drinks in favor of health and wellness alternatives. For some younger consumers, drinking less or no alcohol includes seeking out beverages with more natural ingredients. 

In Philadelphia, a senior at Temple University said she regularly drank yerba mate beverages throughout her first three years in college, preferring it as a “healthier” choice to energy drink Red Bull.

The highly caffeinated herbal tea drink contains steeped leaves of the yerba mate plant, an indigenous evergreen shrub to South America. Yerba mate the drink dates to pre-Columbian times in countries like Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina. But its rapid rise in worldwide popularity, especially over coffee, led to the plant’s “near threatened” conservation status.

“It’s difficult to shop ethically for caffeinated drinks like this, but I do think people should be a little more suspicious about where these drinks are coming from,” the Temple University student said. She stopped drinking yerba mate beverages last year because she was concerned with over-harvesting and its environmental impact. She still doesn’t consume much alcohol, instead opting for enhanced water, herbal teas, kombucha, and coffee. 

Why now?

Howard Telford, senior industry manager for soft drinks research at Euromonitor International in Chicago, feels “pill fatigue” may be driving the uptick in consumption of functional beverages as people look for quick, easy, and enjoyable ways to get their daily vitamins. 

According to a report by The Washington Post, 40% of adults in the U.S. said they’re drinking more functional beverages these days because they believe the drinks offer wellness benefits or as an alternative to eating a balanced diet and exercising. 

“I believe functional drinks can have some perks, like added vitamins or probiotics that might help with hydration, energy, or digestion,” Emory University student Samuel Lim said.

He consumes around four functional beverages a week, ranging from green juices to energy drinks, and sees them as better for his health than regularly consuming Coke or Sprite. Lim often grabs green juices over traditional soft drinks because it “seems like a good idea.” 

Another Emory University student, Ellie Fivas, said functional beverages are also “fun to think about.”

Companies often package drinks like green juice and prebiotic sodas with colorful labels or swirls of fruits and vegetables to lure health-conscious individuals. Most green juices, “better-for-you” sodas, and drinks good for the metabolism, however, have little to no healthy fiber or offer much nutritional value. 

While drinking less or no alcohol is definitely better for overall health, functional beverages such as yerba mate drinks, CBD-infused beverages, energy drinks, or green juices may also come with adverse health consequences.

There are also the concerns over the regular consumption of functional drinks leading to an unhealthy body image or disordered eating amongst young people, particularly when used as meal replacements or for weight loss and portion control. 

Reading the labels

Despite the high concentration of fruits, vegetables, and herbal supplements supposedly contained in these beverages, some functional drinks include a high amount of sugar which can lead to spikes in blood sugar similar to drinking alcohol. 

With the appeal of achieving the same low-stress buzz that comes from drinking alcohol, but without the hangover, young people are turning to functional drinks that incorporate ashwagandha (an evergreen shrub within the nightshade family), mushrooms, or magnesium.

Not enough research has been done on the safe dosages of such ingredients used in functional beverages or how they might interact with daily prescription medications taken for conditions like depression, ADHD, high blood pressure, or autoimmune diseases. In 2024, Panera Bread faced multiple lawsuits over the deaths of people with heart conditions after they drank the bakery-cafe chain’s super-caffeinated lemonade.

The Food Drug and Administration (FDA) has raised concerns over some of the “novel ingredients” added to functional beverages and nonalcoholic drinks touted as healthier or providing nutritional value. The studies that have been conducted, however, were mostly done on animals. More research is needed and standards put in place to ensure functional drinks are properly labeled and facts presented clearly to consumers.

But many young people, like the Temple University student and Fivas and Lim, do understand functional beverages marketed as wellness alternatives simply taste good and shouldn’t replace eating well or exercising. They also understand moderation is key and that these drinks aren’t a shortcut.

“[Functional drinks] make consumers feel good about their health, but, in reality, I think they’re a scam,” Fivas said.

Beth McKibben contributed to this report.