This was CosMc’s, named after a McDonaldland character that approximately no one remembered — with a specific goal: to figure out whether McDonald’s could compete with Starbucks for the afternoon customer.

Then, about a year ago, McDonald’s shut the whole thing down.

My read at the time was cautiously optimistic: the “learning lab” framing McDonald’s used sounded like spin, but the underlying logic — build something separate, test fast, kill it without sentimentality — was actually sound strategy.

Now, we have the answer. It seems that it worked brilliantly.

McDonald’s is rolling out six new permanent specialty drinks at nearly 14,000 U.S. restaurants: three Refreshers (Strawberry Watermelon, Mango Pineapple, Blackberry Passion Fruit, each built on a lemonade base with freeze-dried fruit or popping boba) and three crafted sodas (Sprite Berry Blast, Orange Dream, and Dirty Dr. Pepper, each finished with cold foam).

These are the direct descendants of what McDonald’s learned at CosMc’s — tested at roughly 500 regular restaurants through 2025, refined based on what customers actually ordered, and now deployed at scale.

According to Jill McDonald, the company’s improbably named global chief restaurant experience officer, the pilot “exceeded expectations,” with the drinks driving visits across multiple parts of the day and lifting average checks.

Energy drinks, including a Red Bull collaboration, are coming later this year.

The 3 p.m. problem
A big part of this story is about the “3 p.m. slump” — the too-late-for-lunch, too-early-for-dinner hole in McDonald’s model that Starbucks has owned for years.

That framing turned out to be central to McDonald’s strategy.

The company said explicitly that the new beverages drove “incremental occasions across different dayparts” — industry shorthand for: people are coming in at hours they weren’t coming in before.

McDonald’s, like every quick-service chain, does the bulk of its business at mealtimes. The afternoon is weak for almost everyone except Starbucks and Dunkin’, which have spent years conditioning people to associate them with the mid-afternoon pick-me-up.

Dunkin’ is actively rebranding its afternoon presence. Taco Bell launched its own in-store beverage concept. Every chain wants a reason for people to walk in at 3 p.m.

Beverages also happen to be a much better business than burgers on a margin basis.

A refresher with freeze-dried strawberries costs far less to produce than a quarter-pound beef patty, and customers will pay a premium for something that feels custom and handcrafted.


McDonald’s CEO says that he sees beverages as a “significant profit pool” opportunity; it’s a higher-margin revenue stream that doesn’t require a bigger kitchen.

What the experiment actually proved
CosMc’s only opened five locations, in Illinois and Texas. As I noted at the time, I wasn’t about to drive from New Jersey to try an Iced French Toast Galaxy Latte.

But the point was never scale — it was speed of learning.

The small-footprint spinoff let McDonald’s watch what people actually ordered, at what hours, how often they came back, without putting any of that uncertainty inside the core brand.

When it had learned what it needed, it literally closed up shop and moved on.

That’s harder than it sounds. The instinct when you’ve invested in something is to keep going.

But McDonald’s avoided that trap. They called CosMc’s a learning lab, treated it like one, and spent a year afterward testing the menu item survivors at 500 regular locations before going nationwide.

McDonald’s is also creating a new in-restaurant role called “beverage specialist” to make sure these drinks come out consistently at scale. Consistency is where beverage programs usually fall apart; frankly, consistency has been a McDonald’s hallmark since — well since back around the time that other people named McDonald were running the company.

Whether the drinks catch on is a separate question. The refresher category is crowded.

Starbucks has been doing this for years, Dutch Bros has a loyal following, and my daughter has somehow convinced me that when she has friends sleep over, it’s a tradition for us to walk to Dunkin’ for a Refresher.

But McDonald’s has something that’s hard to match: nearly 14,000 locations, and a price point several dollars below the competition.

It’s 2026. Will we look back on this as a time of innocence? Or the moment when McDonald’s beverage bet really paid off?