Americans choose different beverages for different occasions - whether they’re grabbing a soda to go with takeout, brewing morning coffee or tea, reaching for an energy drink during a late-night study session or picking up water to stay hydrated. That variety makes beverages an unusually broad competitive category, where the brands consumers consider most can look very different depending on what they are drinking and why.
YouGov’s U.S. beverage rankings 2026 uncover which beverage brands are strongest in consumer consideration, which are gaining ground year over year, and how leading brands compare on perceptions of value and quality.
The rankings are based on data from YouGov BrandIndex, our always-on brand tracking platform, drawing on surveys of more than 23,000 U.S. adults. BrandIndex tracks nearly 140 beverage brands daily across 16 brand-health metrics, allowing us to look at the market overall and across four key subsectors: carbonated soft drinks; coffee, juice and tea; energy & hydration; and water.
For those wondering where beer, wine and spirits fit in: we’ll be publishing a separate U.S. alcoholic beverage ranking in September.
In this article, we’ll cover:
- Top 25 beverage brands by Consideration among U.S. adults
- Top 10 brands by Consideration across soft drinks, coffee/juice/tea, energy and hydration, and water
- Top 10 biggest improvers in beverage brand Consideration year over year
- How the top considered beverage brands compare on Value and Quality
- Methodology behind the rankings
Which beverage is leading overall consumer consideration?
Gatorade, the sports hydration brand, claims the top spot for Consideration, with 41.0% of U.S. adults saying they would consider purchasing the brand the next time they buy a drink. Coca-Cola follows at 35.6%, while Lipton ranks third with nearly a third (32.3%) of U.S. adults considering the brand.
Starbucks places fourth with 28.6% of consideration and orange juice brand Tropicana rounds out the top five at 28.2%. Ocean Spray, Arizona Iced Tea, Minute Maid, Pepsi, and Dunkin’ complete the top 10.
Because BrandIndex measures each beverage subsector separately, the overall ranking should be read as a cross-category view of brand consideration rather than a head-to-head competition between every brand. Bringing those scores together shows which brands achieve the strongest levels of consideration across the broader beverage market, while the subsector rankings that follow provide a more direct competitive view.
What is the most considered soft drink brand in the U.S.?
Coca-Cola ranks first among soft drink brands at 35.6%, ahead of longtime rival Pepsi at 26.7%. Sprite follows at 25.1%, with Dr Pepper at 23.0%.
Canada Dry rounds out the top five at 20.2%. The rest of the top 10 includes 7UP, Coca-Cola Zero, A&W, Mountain Dew and Diet Coke.
What is the most considered coffee, juice and tea brand in the U.S.?
Iced tea brand Lipton leads the coffee, juice and tea subsector at 32.3%. Starbucks follows at 28.6%, with Tropicana close behind at 28.2%.
Ocean Spray, Arizona Iced Tea and Minute Maid are tightly grouped, all between 27.0% and 27.7%. Dunkin’, Folgers, Simply Orange and Welch’s complete the top 10.
What is the most considered energy and hydration brand in the U.S.?
Gatorade is the clear leader in the energy and hydration ranking, with 41.0% Consideration. Rival sports drink brand Powerade ranks second at 21.3%, leaving a gap of 19.6 points between the top two brands.
Energy drink brand Red Bull ranks third at 16.7%. Propel and Monster round out the top five. BodyArmor, Powerade Zero, Liquid I.V., Celsius and Gatorade Water follow to complete the top 10 in this subsector.
What is the most considered water brand in the U.S.?
Aquafina ranks first among water brands at 23.2%. Dasani follows at 19.6%, while Smartwater ranks third at 18.6%.
VitaminWater, Fiji, Pure Life, Poland Spring, Sparkling Ice, LaCroix and Deer Park complete the top 10.
Which beverage brands are on the rise with consumers?
The biggest-improvers ranking shows which brands gained most in Consideration compared with the previous year. Bottled water brand Dasani records the largest increase, rising 3.8 percentage points from 15.8% in 2025 to 19.6% in 2026.
Starbucks posts the second-largest gain, up 3.5 points to 28.6%. Dr Pepper follows with a 3.1 point increase, reaching 23.0%. Fiji and Minute Maid also appear in the top five improvers, gaining 2.6 and 2.5 points, respectively.
Several brands in the improvers table are also well placed in the overall ranking, proving that there’s still room for growth at the top. Starbucks ranks fourth overall and second for improvement, while Minute Maid ranks eighth overall and fifth for improvement.
How do the most considered beverage brands compare on Value and Quality?
Using YouGov BrandIndex, we compared perceptions of Value and Quality among the 25 most considered beverage brands in the U.S. Both metrics are reported as net scores, reflecting the balance of positive and negative consumer perceptions overall. Gatorade leads on both measures, with a Value score of 33.2 and a Quality score of 45.5.
Lipton also performs strongly, with a Value score of 32.5 and a Quality score of 40.8, which puts it in second place in each metric.
The chart also shows why a single ranking metric only provides part of the consumer story. For instance, Starbucks ranks fourth for overall Consideration, but has a net Value score of -15.1 and ranks outside of the top 25 for Quality perception.
Explore more beverage brand data
These rankings provide a selected view of the beverage-sector data available in YouGov BrandIndex. Deeper analysis can help beverage brands understand not only where they rank, but which audiences, competitors, and brand-health measures shape their position.
In a beverage brand briefing, YouGov can walk through:
- Full rankings across tracked beverage brands and subsectors
- Competitor benchmarks across Consideration, Purchase Intent, Awareness, Value, Quality, and other BrandIndex metrics
- Year-over-year movement across the whole sector
- Audience cuts by generation and other consumer segments
- Subsector comparisons across carbonated soft drinks, coffee/juice/tea, energy and hydration, and water
- Trend data showing how brand health changes over time
Methodology
This article draws on YouGov BrandIndex data collected from August 1, 2025 to July 31, 2026. The year-over-year improvers table compares the current period with August 1, 2024 to July 31, 2025. Due to brand recategorization in 2025, some brands only have year-over-year insights across 17 months, rather than YouGov’s standard 18-month requirement.
The primary Consideration and Value/Quality analyses cover U.S. adults. Minimum bases are n> 16,490 for the primary Consideration, and Value/Quality assets. The improvers table uses minimum bases of n> 16,590 for the current period and n> 5,050 for the comparison period.
The subsector rankings are based on survey responses from U.S. adults. Minimum bases are n> 21,700 for carbonated soft drinks, n> 16,490 for coffee, juice and tea, n> 23,360 for energy and hydration, and n> 22,760 for water.
Consideration is reported as the percentage of respondents who would consider purchasing each brand the next time they are in the market for beverages. Value and Quality are net scores, calculated from positive and negative brand associations. Changes in Consideration are expressed as score-point differences.
Metric questions:
- Consideration: When you are in the market next to purchase beverages, from which of the following would you consider purchasing?
- Value: Which of the following beverage brands do you think represents good or poor value for money?
- Quality: Which of the following beverage brands do you think represents good or poor quality?
Sample sizes vary by asset and are shown in the notes accompanying each chart.
Dunkin’ and Starbucks data is based on the CPG products that the brands sell in stores, not their owned retail locations.
Disclosure: The data analysis in this article was conducted by YouGov with the assistance of AI tools.
About YouGov BrandIndex
YouGov BrandIndex is an always-on brand tracking tool that measures consumer perceptions of thousands of brands across sectors and markets. It helps marketers monitor brand health, benchmark competitors, identify audience-specific strengths and weaknesses, and understand how perceptions change over time.