The former accounted for $725 million and the latter for $617 million, the "Coffee and Tea Chains in Southeast Asia 2026" report by venture capital firm Momentum Works said.

A Starbucks store in downtown Ho Chi Minh City, April 18, 2025.

The largest markets in the region were Indonesia with $3.15 billion and Thailand with $2.25 billion worth of chains.

Vietnam was the second fastest growing in terms of both markets since 2023 -- 28% in the case of coffee chains and 27% in the case of tea -- the report said.

The largest coffee chain by store count in Vietnam was Milano Coffee with around 2,500 outlets nationwide.

It was followed by Highlands Coffee, which is owned by Philippine fast-food group Jollibee Foods.

Phuc Long, Starbucks and Katinat were some of the other major chains.

In the tea segment, ToCoToCo led with nearly 1,000 stores and was followed by Wujia Tea with 500.

Other big players included Gong Cha, Koi Thé, The Alley, and Tiger Sugar, each with 50–70 stores.

Across the region, only 11 coffee and tea chains had crossed the 1,000-outlet milestone, including three international brands, the U.S.’s Starbucks and China’s Mixue and Bingxue.

The largest were Chinese bubble tea chain Mixue with over 4,900 stores and Thailand’s Café Amazon with over 4,400.

But both have faced intense competition in Vietnam, with Amazon exiting last November after five years in the market and Mixue planning to scale back its presence.

The report said the overall Southeast Asian coffee and tea chain markets were worth nearly $10 billion.

Weihan Chen, insights lead at Momentum Works, said the market has largely revolved around store count expansion and the emergence of new brands in recent years.

But optimization, from operations and supply chain to digital infrastructure, would soon become crucial to being competitive, she said.

Brands that succeed in future would not only offer tasty drinks and have the largest networks, but also possess strong operational systems, she added.

The report said leading Chinese brands are adopting technologies like automation and QR-based processes to boost productivity and unit economics.

While a typical store serves 300–400 cups a day, outlets operated by these leading brands can sell 600–800, going up all the way to more than 9,000.

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