I taste tested them side by side to see which is better
by Lars H
A lot of people don’t know this, but McDonald’s, Dunkin’ and Starbucks all have fairly similar shares of the coffee market. People buy a lot of coffee from all three places. Starbucks is the biggest, but the other two are not that far behind. Depending on where you look, it’s estimated at around 20 percent Starbucks, 16 percent Dunkin’ and 12 percent McDonald’s of market of buying a coffee outside the home.
McDonald’s has upped their game over the past five or more years, rolling out their McCafes, making higher end coffees available and not just plain old drip and decaf drip anymore.
I am not a huge fan of McDonald’s drip coffee, but I’ll admit it’s always fresh and hot. I will drink it if nothing else is nearby. I’d prefer a Starbucks, but there’s not always one around in smaller towns.
I started wondering, I wonder how their Americanos compare to their regular drip coffee. Hey, there was only one way to find out. I stopped at a McDonald’s in Dallas and went inside and ordered one of each to compare.
The first thing that happened after I placed my order was that a guy called me back to the counter and said they were doing something to the espresso machine and it would be five minutes if I really wanted the Americano. I was relieved they didn’t say the machine was broken or something like that. I told them no problem, I can wait.
When someone walked out the coffees to where I was waiting, they looked identical. So I asked them which was which. Fortunately, they had pressed down the OTHER tab on the Americano to distinguish it from the drip, so I could safely tell them apart.
I took a sip of the Americano first, and it was quite good. This was a coffee shop level Americano that I would be quite happy with if someone brought it to me in a cup and didn’t tell me where it came from. It was hot. The tasting notes were all of your mainstream and traditional notes like chocolate and nuts, so it wasn’t anything citrus like or fruity. It was what people who like mainstream coffee flavors like, which is also what I like. I give it a positive rating.
Next up was a sip of the regular old small drip coffee from McDonald’s, also known as the premium roast. It was immediately apparent to me that it was not as good as the Americano. It tasted exactly like you would recognize as McDonald’s coffee. So if you love McDonald’s coffee and it’s your favorite, then maybe you’d like their drip better. But for anyone else who finds McDonald’s Premium Roast drip coffee to just be an ok enough coffee and who would prefer something like a Starbucks drip, then I believe you will prefer the Americano like I did.
The bad news is, the small Americano costs almost twice as much as the small drip. But the good news is that the small drip only costs $1, and the small Americano is still only $1.80. So this is still quite a bit cheaper than a Starbucks, and I thought a quite reasonable price for a respectable Americano.
Maybe for you, the extra 80 cents is a dealbreaker. If so, then you’ll be fine with the regular coffee. For me, it’s worth the extra 80 cents to order the Americano and that’s what I’ll order from now on when I’m at McDonald’s.
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