These creative new drinks might be heading to a McDonald's near you
McDonald’s Is Testing Out These Trendy New Drinks This Fall—And We Can’t Wait for Our First Sip
Published on Jul. 25, 2025
When you’re craving a fun, creative and possibly even caffeinated drink, chances are, you head to one of the country’s most popular beverage chains. Think Starbucks, Dunkin’ or Dutch Bros. True, McDonald’s may not necessarily be the first restaurant that comes to mind when you’re craving a trendy beverage, but that might not be the case for long. The Golden Arches just announced that a bunch of brand-new drinks are headed to McDonald’s locations for testing this fall, and it may very well change the beverage game as we know it.
Keep reading to find out everything we know so far about the brand-new beverages McDonald’s will be testing and when you’ll be able to get your hands on one of these creative and trendy drinks.
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What drinks is McDonald’s testing?
You might be tempted to trade in your old-fashioned fountain soda for one of the new drinks McDonald’s will soon be testing. The restaurant chain plans to introduce around 10 new drinks, including ice-cold coffees and frappés, fruity refreshers, carefully crafted sodas and other beverages that will give your energy levels a little boost. Plus, you’ll be able to try out “dirty sodas,” which are essentially sodas that you can customize with add-ins, like flavored syrups and dried fruit.
McDonald’s shared some of the names of these fun new flavors, which include Creamy Vanilla Cold Brew, Strawberry Watermelon Refresher, Sprite Lunar Splash and Popping Tropic Refresher.
Wait, haven’t we seen these drinks before?
If these new and exciting drinks sound a little bit familiar, it’s likely because we’ve seen the likes of them before. In late 2023, McDonald’s launched a space-themed spinoff of The Golden Arches called CosMc’s, which was designed to test the waters to see which types of novelty beverages customers preferred and how popular they might be.
While the eight locations, all located in Texas and Illinois, caused quite a stir at first, they never really took off. The experiment was short-lived, and earlier this year, McDonald’s announced that all the CosMc’s locations would be closing. On the bright side, the McDonald’s team learned a lot from CosMc’s, and all the data collected from those months of testing led to this new phase of creative novelty drinks.
When will the new drinks hit restaurants?
If you’re mourning the loss of CosMc’s, you won’t have to wait long to try fun and unique McDonald’s drinks once again. The new drink lineup will be available at select McDonald’s locations starting Sept. 2. You’ll be sipping on your new favorite drink before you know it!
Where will they be available?
For now, the testing of these bold new drinks is limited to about 500 McDonald’s restaurants, largely concentrated within Wisconsin, Colorado and their surrounding areas. McDonald’s also has plans to test creative new beverage options internationally, though the flavors will vary. While Americans tend to gravitate toward berry and citrusy flavors, the mint, lemon and orange flavors tend to be more popular in Europe.
What are fans saying?
Fans raced to social media upon hearing the news of McDonald’s new drink menu, and many can’t wait to try the drinks out for themselves. “I need that frappe!!!” wrote one Instagram commenter. “The Popping Tropic Refresher looks like a keeper 👏👏” said another. “Strawberry watermelon refresher 🍉 sounds so good,” wrote a third.
Others pointed out that some of the flavors aren’t exactly as descriptive as they might have hoped. “I’m curious what ‘lunar’ is supposed to be in terms of flavor 😮” commented an excited McDonald’s fan.
While these new drinks are currently slated for testing in select areas, McDonald’s enthusiasts are manifesting a nationwide rollout. “I hope they do it everywhere eventually,” said one commenter.
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Sources:
- McDonald’s: “Something Bold (and Delicious) is Brewing at McDonald’s: A First Sip into the Future of Beverages”
- Wall Street Journal: “McDonald’s to Test ‘Dirty Sodas’ and Flavored Cold Brews to Cash In on Drinks Craze”
