Wednesday, March 15, 2023

McDonald's challenges Chick-fil-A with new lemonade


McDonald's
has already attempted to muscle into the chicken sandwich market with the very Chick-fil-A-esque McCrispy. Its spare pickle accompaniment and buttered bun leaves no doubt as to which fast food chain inspired its inception. Now the Golden Arches are again displaying the sincerest form of flattery toward America's favorite closed-on-Sundays restaurant, with a new beverage many Chick-fil-A customers find goes best with that famous chicken sandwich: lemonade. It's appearing in select markets across America right now, including New York City, Dallas, Chicago, Seattle, and...Montgomery County, Maryland.

But this lemonade isn't what you might have expected, given McDonald's' Coca-Cola partnership. It would have been easy, cheap and predictable to simply promote Minute Maid Lemonade. After all, Minute Maid has one of the best store-bought lemonades on the market.

Pre-made bottled or frozen lemonades haven't been the tradition at Chick-fil-A, though, so McDonald's is again turning to a formula that has worked for its upstart competitor. Chick-fil-A lemonade is made with "three simple ingredients: real lemon juice, cane sugar and water," according to the company's website. The new McDonald's Lemonade is made with...real lemon juice, cane sugar and water. Chick-fil-A lemonade has bits of pulp in it, due to being squeezed from real lemons. McDonald's Lemonade also has bits of pulp in it.

Wow, what a coincidence!

It's safe to assume that if customer reaction is favorable enough, the new lemonade will be added to the menu nationwide. For now, check your local McDonald's in Montgomery County, and you can be one of the first in America to sample it. Even on Sundays.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What this specifically has to do with Bethesda I am not sure since Bethesda only has one McDonalds outside of the one in Montgomery Mall. I’m referring to the Busy Drive-Thru location on River Rd. It’s the only Drive-Thru location McDonald’s has in all of Chevy Chase, NW Washington, Bethesda, North Bethesda, Cabin John and Potomac !

Robert Dyer said...

I'm not sure I understand your question - you acknowledge there are two McDonald's restaurants in Bethesda, and the photograph above the article is literally of the menu board at the Bethesda McDonald's on River Road. How, then, is this article not relevant to Bethesda?

Anonymous said...

I agree Robert, particularly because we have so few. Being tony and all, we don't need more.