By way of the Wall Street Journal:
McDonald’s is setting out to poach Starbucks customers with the biggest addition to its menu in 30 years. Starting this year, the company’s nearly 14,000 U.S. locations will install coffee bars with “baristas” serving cappuccinos, lattes, mochas and the Frappe, similar to Starbucks’ ice-blended Frappuccino.
Perhaps they’ll try upselling an apple pie instead of the fries with their coffee drinks. It might be a better match. But still, yuk. I can’t imagine getting a decent coffee from McDonald’s.
I could be mean and say that most of McDonald’s customer base probably can’t tell the difference between good coffee and crap, but that would be a little unfair of me. After all, coffee lovers are made, not born.
January 8th, 2008 at 5:04 am
I tried McDonald’s premium coffee in a desperate effort to stay awake while driving on a long trip. I was surprised to find I preferred it over Starbucks. And there was that Consumer Reports test that found tasters liked McDonald’s better too–but that should be no surprise since McDonald’s probably did a zillion of those before trotting it out.
Not sure I trust McD’s getting into espresso or cappucinos, but then again, Starbucks hasn’t really got those down either, at least compared to the ones you get in Italy. If no one cares enough even to bother with glass cups anymore, there’s no hope for them anyway.