Three individual anthocyanins were found in hawthorn fruit for the first time.
Cyanidin-3-galactoside is the main anthocyanin in Chinese hawthorn fruit.
Heat pretreatment had good performance to increase anthocyanins and colour density.
A significant positively correlation between anthocyanins and colour density.
No significant effect of pretreatments on antioxidant capacity of hawthorn drink.