No more 100% sweetness: Thailand moves to halve sugar in coffee products
Thailand’s biggest coffee chains will soon serve significantly less sugar by default, following a new public health push aimed at curbing diet-related disease.
Starting February 11, 2026, drinks ordered at “normal sweetness” will contain just half of their previous sugar content, under a nationwide standard rolled out by the Department of Health.
The policy applies to freshly brewed beverages and was developed with nine major coffee operators, including Café Amazon, Inthanin, All Café, Black Canyon, and Punthai.
Health authorities described the move as one that is designed to slow the rise of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, which remain a growing burden in Thailand.
According to Bangkok Hospital, nearly 1 in every 10 Thais aged 15 and above is living with diabetes — close to 5 million people — a figure that has sharpened the government’s push to cut sugar consumption nationwide.
Globally, diabetes has surged at an alarming pace, with the number of people living with the disease rising from about 200 million in 1990 to 830 million in 2022, with treatment coverage weakest in poorer nations.
Rather than banning sugar outright, the programme changes the default recipe. Customers will still be able to request full sweetness, but the standard option will now deliver only 50% sugar.
This move is a form of behavioural “nudging,” a strategy meant to gently reshape consumer habits by normalising lower-sugar choices.
Under the revised formula, a typical 16-ounce cup of coffee or Thai milk tea will contain about 3.3 to 3.7 teaspoons of sugar, comfortably below the World Health Organization’s recommended daily maximum of six teaspoons.
The initiative also dovetails with Thailand’s expanding sugar tax regime, which targets sweetened beverages and is expected to generate 578.2 billion baht ($18 billion) in revenue in 2026.
While packaged drinks are already taxed based on sugar content, freshly made beverages have largely fallen outside regulatory reach. The new partnership effectively closes that gap.
For coffee chains, the shift offers financial upside as well. Using less sugar and syrup lowers ingredient costs, helping businesses offset higher taxes and rising raw material prices without raising menu prices.
This story is written and edited by the Global South World team, you can contact us here.
