Earlier this month, McDonald’s began testing an expanded beverage menu in more than 500 restaurants in Wisconsin and Colorado.
The menu features drinks that are “inspired” by CosMc’s, the drive-thru beverage concept that McDonald’s launched in late 2023 and grew to several locations before ultimately shutting it down in May.
The new lineup, which is still branded as CosMc’s, has six drinks in three categories: coffee, crafted soda and refreshers.
The coffees are a Creamy Vanilla Cold Brew and a Toasted Vanilla Frappe; the crafted sodas are a Sprite Berry Blast and a Sprite Lunar Splash; and the refreshers are a Popping Tropic Refresher and a Strawberry Watermelon Refresher. None of them appeared on the original CosMc’s menu.
The new drinks have "bold" flavors.
Beverages have become arguably the hottest menu segment in the restaurant industry as items like dirty soda and boba take off, particularly with younger consumers. Beverage chains such as Dutch Bros, 7Brew and Swig have been among the fastest growing in the country in recent years, and now big brands like Taco Bell, KFC and Chick-fil-A are chasing the trend with spinoff beverage concepts of their own.
“It's a really large market opportunity,” McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said during an earnings call in August. “It's growing, and it's more profitable than food. So there's a lot of things to like, which is why we, as well as a few of our competitors, are also excited about this.”
We visited a McDonald’s in the Milwaukee market to try some of the new options. Here are some impressions.
Service was quick
One question about the new beverage lineup is how the more complex drinks will impact McDonald’s service times, particularly in the drive-thru, where every second counts.
We ordered four small beverages in the drive-thru, and we were on our way in about four minutes. At the window, we were asked to pull off to the side and park, but it only took a couple of minutes for the drinks to arrive.
On the August earnings call, Kempczinski noted that the CosMc’s beverages are not as complicated as the brand initially thought because consumers are not that interested in designing their own drinks from a blank slate.
“They actually want to be given a recipe and then they just want to make adjustments around the edges on that,” he said.
We ordered both of the refreshers ($3.19 each), the Toasted Vanilla Frappe ($2.99) and the Sprite Lunar Splash ($2.89), bringing the total to just over $13. This felt about right to us for four premium beverages.
Color and texture rose to the top
What stood out most about the drinks was their appearance.
The Sprite Lunar Splash had a gradient effect thanks to its topping of freeze-dried dragonfruit. The Popping Tropic Refresher, which is made with pineapple and mango juices, had a deep yellowish hue with some red near the bottom where the miniature “popping pearls” settled. The frappe came topped with a swirl of whipped cream.
Mix-ins added color and texture to the drinks.
All the drinks were served in clear, CosMc’s-branded cups to show off the contents. These were clearly designed to be shared on social media, which should resonate with the TikTok crowd.
In addition to adding some visual appeal, mix-ins like fruit and popping pearls also brought some texture and a sense of freshness to the drinks. They signaled that there was slightly more care put into these beverages than something you could get at the fountain.
A handful of freeze-dried strawberries jazzed up what was an otherwise straightforward Strawberry Watermelon Refresher, for instance.
They hit the sweet spot
All of the drinks sat firmly on the sweet side of the flavor spectrum, particularly the Popping Tropic Refresher. All but the coffee contained lemonade (or lemon flavor, in the Sprite) for a bit of zing, and the popping pearls were a bit sour as well.
The toasted vanilla flavor in the frappe was a welcome contrast to the fruitiness of the others.
Also, all of the drinks but the Sprites are caffeinated, which we did not realize until we started feeling a little jittery. The refreshers are advertised as “moderately” caffeinated to provide a boost any time of day.
The lineup launched earlier this month. | Photo courtesy of McDonald's
Final thoughts
These beverages are on-trend, convenient and have an approachable price point. They should be a hit with sweet tooths as well as social media users looking to add an eye-catching treat to their feed, assuming they are OK with drinks that don’t allow for a whole lot of customization.
Will they be enough to stand out from the sea of similar options flowing out of other brands? That’s unclear. But McDonald’s massive footprint and marketing muscle will certainly give it an advantage if it decides to move forward.
For what it’s worth, when we asked an employee whether their store had been selling a lot of CosMc’s drinks, they said “absolutely.”
Restaurant Business parent company Informa Connect will be holding a three-day conference on the future of beverages Nov. 12-14 in Austin, Texas. For more information, click here.
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