On Monday, McDonald's will be rolling
out their new "premium roast"
coffee at stores across the country. You may have seen TV ads for the coffee, or even tasted it yourself, as it has
been released in several markets already. It seems that the fast-food giant wants to capitalize on the love of the
American public for gourmet coffee, following in the footsteps of chains like Dunkin Donuts and Burger King, which
recently began to promote its coffee. Another reason for the new coffee is that McDonald's is trying to increase its
share of the breakfast market, as consumers more frequently turn to specialty coffee retailers and grab a pastry with
their lattes. White the coffee is unlikely to be up to the quality of the specialty retailers, it will
certainly be a step up from the "coffee" previously sold at McDonald's. In keeping with the
"premium" theme, the new coffees will be served in insulated cups with the same style of lid seen at places
like Starbucks instead of the usual fast-food hot beverage lid, which has a punch-out flap for drinking
from. According to the McDonald's website, you can get a coupon for a free coffee with any purchase by visiting a
participating store between now and March 4th.
Golden Arches offers gourmet coffee
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
1I live in Los Angeles where the new brew has been around since last spring. It's actually really good (as fast food goes: not as good as Dunkin Donuts, but as good as Starbuck's drip).
I blogged about it back then:
http://www.typetive.com/fastfiction/item/holy_crap_its_not_crap/
Now if it were fair trade/organic nationwide, we'd be onto something.
2It's not in the US yet, but McDonald's in Europe and Australia have had add-on McCafe's that sell european pastries and gourmet coffee for years. The first time I saw one was in 1995 in Sydney, Australia, though I've seen them in London and Melbourne as well.
3How fitting..that coffee looks like the dirty grease from a McDonalds fryer congealing after being drained and pumped into a dirty 55-gallon barrel full of cold grease mixed with meat/fry/chicken particles, water and any bugs that happened to have crawled into it.
MMMM! And they wheel that baby into the resurant EVERY DAY folks!
43-02-2006 @ 4:07PM
Terry Bain said...
A lot of the McD's around here have had SBC (Seattle's Best/Starbucks) for some time. So I'm wondering...
a. Will they switch to this new thingie now?
2. Is the coffee sourced through Star$s anyway?
iii. Will it be as good?
four. Was it good before? I almost never ever go in to a McDonald's anymore. My kids hate the food, and if your kids hate the food, there really isn't any reason to go there, right?
5In response to Filbert, the McCafe idea has been in the Central North Carolina area (Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill) for about 2 years. For the most part they were built as add-ons to existing McDonald's. Very weird to see a Starbucks-eque coffee shop right next to the typical McDonald's decor.
I've only been there a few times, and it was decent. It offers the "fancy" coffee drinks (cappucino, espresso, mocha lattes , etc), plus sandwiches and pastries. Have not tried the food though.
7The 7-11-esque chain Sheetz (Why they haven't expanded outside Central PA is outside my understanding. Far and away, this is the best of the bunch. Good, cheap eats.) recently introduced espresso bars into a few of it's stores. Good stuff. It's all pod-based and the espresso is a little bitter, but the price is right and there's a nice selection.
There's a McD's on the Jersey Parkway near exit...145? that has had a cafe in it for ages. I'm not sure it was McD branded or not, but it was pretty alright as of 2 years ago.
And I like BKJoe. It's not great, but it's better than whatever muck they slosh out in diners.
93-03-2006 @ 2:28PM
Floyd Stegall said...
Tried the new premium coffee at a Mickey D's in Atlanta this past Monday. It's OK - nothing really special, but definately better than what they've been selling. I don't think I'd call it gourmet coffee - it's definately NOT Kenya AA or Jamaica Blue Mountain - but it's acceptable. If I were running the McDonalds corporation, I'd just make this my regular house coffee and be done with it - the regular stuff is not very good. Also - I was a bit put off that they charge more for this new coffee. It's not so much better that it's worth paying more to get it.
11I an surprised that with all of McDonalds' marketing think tanking that they had not come up with a premium branding of coffee years ago. They could have put a serious hurt on Starbucks initial launch. I am sure that they would have been able to deliver the premium goods at a reasonable price. Starbucks is all about snooty cache and often not a very good cup of java at that for the high price!
13I think it's regional, which is why they're calling it "premium roast" and not giving it a name. McD's has had Green Mountain/Newman's Own Organic Free Trade Coffee in New England for a couple of months now. It's good, but then again, I was already a Green Mountain Coffee drinker.
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/10/27/mcdonalds_reaches_deal_to_sell_organic_coffee_in_new_england/
15dunkin donuts coffee is mexican coffee,McDonalds doesnt get it,they have to tell consumers where the coffee is from ,each country has a different way they cure and roast the coffee beans.consumer like as much information about a product as they can gather so they feel as though they made a wise purchase.Kona,jamacian,mexican,costa rica,sumatran,kenya make the best coffees in my opinion.columbian can vary in quality but is average most of the time
17I own a coffee distribution company in lower Connecticut. Most of my accounts are very high-end restaurants and Country Clubs. Believe me when I say that the people who like Dunkin' Donuts and McDonalds Premium coffee have no idea what a good coffee is supposed to taste like. I recommend that they find a small specialty cafe who roasts their own coffees on premise and sample what real coffee should be.
19Way back in 1996-1997, in the tiny little town of Healdsburg, CA, I used to get a version of a mocha from the McDonald's there. It actually was pretty good, and this is coming from someone who is a mocha fiend. I've had mochas all over the western states, some good, some bad, and the McDonald's version was somewhere in the middle. Definitely worth it when I couldn't get one elsewhere. Does anyone else remember McDonald's doing this back then? I hope their new premium coffee is good enough for the middle of the night coffee addict who wants better then the usual "fast food" coffee.
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