Iced Milk Tea Becomes the Default Summer Order in Riyadh Cafes

Key facts

Riyadh's cafe scene is leaning further into iced milk tea and other cold-format drinks this summer as extreme heat holds through late July. The National Center for Meteorology's most recent bulletin, reported by Saudi Gazette on July 5, forecast temperatures of 46 to 48 degrees Celsius across parts of Makkah, Madinah, and the Eastern Province. That forecast sits inside the same summer heat band that keeps Riyadh's own daytime highs in the mid-40s Celsius through August.

Separately, market research firm Mordor Intelligence reports that Saudi Arabia holds a 55.30 percent share of the Middle East's ready-to-drink tea market as of 2025, the largest of any country in the region. The firm points to convenience and cold formats as the main growth driver, alongside a recent regulatory change. Since July 2025, Saudi Arabia's Food and Drug Authority has required caffeine disclosure, high-sodium warnings, and physical activity icons on packaged beverages, a rule that is reshaping how iced tea and milk tea products are labeled on shelves and menus.

What it means for Riyadh

For Riyadh residents, the practical effect shows up on cafe menus rather than in weather bulletins. Iced tea, milk tea, and matcha-based drinks have moved from summer specials to standing menu items at cafes across the city, from Thai-style milk tea with tapioca pearls to fruit-forward iced tea blends. A local guide to Riyadh's cold-drink cafes listed options from peach iced tea to strawberry cream matcha, evidence that iced, milk-based tea formats were already anchoring drinks menus before this year's heat pushed demand further.

Expats, bilingual professionals, and students moving between air-conditioned offices and outdoor errands account for a large part of that demand, ordering iced over hot as a matter of course through July and August. Families heading out in the cooler evening hours are another steady source of orders, choosing cold, milk-based tea drinks over hot brews once the sun goes down but the heat has not yet broken.

Background

Tea has long been part of Saudi hospitality, traditionally served hot alongside Arabic coffee as a welcome drink. That habit is not disappearing, but it is being joined by a parallel, cold-format market. Mordor Intelligence's analysis notes that Saudi consumers, particularly the country's large under-30 population, increasingly want convenient, on-the-go tea, and that flavor innovation using dates, pomegranate, and saffron is helping cold tea formats fit local taste while meeting that demand for convenience.

Milk tea sits inside a related but distinct category from bottled iced tea. International bubble tea and milk tea chains, including Tealive and Gong Cha, have been expanding into the Gulf with flavors such as taro and lychee aimed at younger consumers, a sign that the cold milk tea format is following the same growth curve as the wider ready-to-drink tea market. Multinational beverage makers PepsiCo and Nestle have each committed multi-billion riyal investment programs in the Kingdom, PepsiCo about 9 billion riyals over eight years and Nestle about 7 billion riyals over the next decade, underscoring how large the shift toward cold and convenient tea formats has become. The pattern is not unique to Saudi Arabia. Across the wider Gulf, cafes and quick-service outlets report the same climate-driven pull toward iced tea, milk tea, and other chilled drinks, with Saudi Arabia currently the single largest national market in the region for the category.

Takeaway

Iced milk tea in Riyadh is no longer a summer novelty item. It is becoming the default order. Extreme heat through July and August gives cafes a reason to keep cold-format drinks on the menu, while regional market growth and new SFDA labeling rules are pushing brands to be more precise about what goes into every cup. For residents, the takeaway is simple: this summer, iced is the easier order in Riyadh, and cafes across the city are increasingly built to serve it that way.