Hey Minnesota, Does a Coke from McDonalds Really Taste Better?

Ever get a craving for something that you can only get in one place? Happens to all of us, right? Sometimes it's that piece of pie from the local diner, or since we’re coming up on the holidays, maybe it’s that special dish that your aunt makes. 

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Or maybe, it’s a Fountain Coke from McDonalds. It’s happened to me, and I don’t drink that much caffeine, but when the craving hits, a Coke from McDonalds is near the top of the list of drinks I’ll get. 

I think Coke from McDonalds just hits different than Coke from other places, but that has to all be in my head, right. 

Apparently not, according to Weird Food History on Youtube, there’s truth to that.  

The connection with McDonalds and Coke dates back to 1955 when Ray Kroc (pictured above) met Coca Cola Executive Waddy Pratt and they struck a deal to team the two brands up and it’s been that way ever since. McDonalds is the only brand that has its own division at Coca Cola.  

Plus, McDonalds and Coke have a deal that syrup for Coke can’t be sold to other restaurants cheaper than what McDonalds pays.  

To get the best flavor of your favorite soft drink, you need to get the fountain variety. The ingredients in fountain drinks do not mix until you press your cup on the lever to dispense the drink to you. The drinks you get in bottles and cans is pre-mixed when they fill them. 

So, the best possible flavor comes from fountains but why does McDonalds have the edge in how your Coke tastes. It is said that McDonalds has strict policies on how their drink machines are taken care of so that the taste is as fresh and consistent as possible. 

Just as you expect the Big Mac or Quarter Pounder with Cheese to taste the same no matter where you buy it, McDonalds has that same goal for how their drinks taste.  

Some restaurants are said to put more syrup than is recommended to make their Cokes taste sweeter. And then some individual locations may not follow the companies' guidelines as closely as others. 

McDonalds puts their mixture of syrup and carbon dioxide high on their daily procedure list, so they get that consistency that we spoke of earlier.  

McDonalds uses less syrup in their drinks which results of course in less sugar. A small Coke at Mickey D’s has 40 grams of sugar, while other chain restaurants could have as much as 67 grams in their small drinks.  

Other factors that can affect the taste include syrup ratio, drink temperature and carbonation levels. McDonalds has even studied the effect melting ice can have on their drinks.  

McDonalds also pre-chills its syrup which helps to prevent dilution, because the chilling will keep the Coke Carbonated longer. As a matter of fact, the entire fountain system McDonalds uses is refrigerated. It’s an elaborate system, they have to keep the whole system cold which again is proof in the taste of what they’ve been doing.  

The flavor of the coke will be different at McDonalds if you don’t get ice in the cup. The mixture recipe they have is designed to use ice with the drink.  

To keep their drinks fresher and tasting better, McDonalds uses special steel storage tanks that are chilled to store their Coke Syrup in, versus the plastic bags most other restaurants use.  
There’s also a lot of science about water filtration and water temperatures that honestly sounds like a foreign language, but hopefully you get the drift of the effort that is put into the taste of a McDonalds Coke.  

One more thing McDonalds does to help their Cokes taste better, is they use a wider straw than most other restaurants which allows more Coke to wash over your tastebuds, which they believe will help it taste better to you. 

So now you see that you’re not crazy if you’ve thought their Cokes taste better than other fast-food restaurants. And you see there's a very researched and detailed plan in place that Ronald McDonald and his crews use.  

Now if McDonalds could put a similar plan together to keep their ice cream machines working?