McDonald’s Spices Up Soft Drink Menus with Dirty Sodas, Specialty Bevs

Mix Dr Pepper, coconut sweetener, half-and-half and a squirt of lime juice, and you have a Dirty Dr Pepper, a TikTok-viral drink that McDonald’s is adding to its menu (exact recipe TBD). 

The chain will soon start making a variety of new cold drinks, including modified sodas and energy beverages, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Mickey D’s didn’t make the decision overnight. It first tested specialty drinks at its short-lived CosMc’s restaurants and, last fall, launched new beverages at about 500 McDonald’s restaurants.

The New Little Treat to Beat

Dirty sodas are concoctions made by combining soda with flavored syrups, creams and juices. The trend took off in Utah (many Mormons don’t drink coffee) and went viral at the same time #MomTok and, later, “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” became a social-media obsession.

Small chains like Swig capitalized on Utah’s big moment, opening soda bars across the US. Swig grew from 45 stores in 2022 to more than 150 now and is targeting 1,000 locations by 2030. But the top franchises aren’t letting Utahn upstarts own the fad:

• Taco Bell has dirty-ified Mountain Dew Baja Blast and introduced a line of Refrescas last year, while Starbucks rolled out caffeinated Refreshers this month. Dutch Bros., meanwhile, has grown into the third-biggest US coffee chain and not because of hot lattes. About 90% of its drinks are cold, and roughly a quarter of its revenue comes from energy drinks like its Shark Attack Rebel. 
• Chinese tastes may also be influencing more chains to sell creative cold drinks. Luckin, the largest coffee brand in China, has opened stores in the US at a rapid clip. It’s known for low-cost, fruit-forward drinks, such as Coconut Latte and Apple Fizzy Americano. 

Later, $8 Lattes: The Ozempiconomy didn’t kill little treats, but tighter budgets prompted consumers to seek more affordable indulgences. McDonald’s plans to keep the prices of its new beverages lower than those of competitors like Starbucks. The drinks are expected to have high profit margins that’ll offset the copious amounts of coconut syrup needed to deliver a true Utahn taste.