The Reason McDonald's Probably Won't Mix Drinks For You

McDonald's has become a household name since its 1955 inception for many reasons, including its ubiquity, signature meals, and convenient fast food format. A customizable drink menu, however, does not appear to be one of its merits.

McDonald's soft drinks taste particularly good on their own, but mixing drink flavors is a fun and creative way to enhance your refreshment experience. The contrasting drink flavors can complement one another, or even create an entirely new flavor. Though McDonald's may seem like a perfect place to experiment with drink mixing, former McDonald's corporate chef Mike Haracz addressed a comment on TikTok, which claimed that three different Mcdonald's refused to mix Coke and Frozen Fanta blue raspberry into one drink. Haracz theorized from his experience that although there is no explicit policy keeping McDonald's employees from mixing drinks, each McDonald's location is supposed to comply with specific nutritional guidelines. Mixing different drinks would blur these lines.

@chefmikeharacz

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♬ original sound – Chef Mike Haracz

According to Haracz, an employee's refusal to mix a drink could be due to compliance with food service guidelines. In 2018, the United States Food and Drug Administration began to require all chain restaurants with 20 or more locations to label their menus with the calorie contents of each item. With over 13,500 locations in the United States (not to mention the thousands more around the globe), this law certainly applies to McDonald's. To date, the chain includes a calorie count on every item on its menu, including beverages.

Each drink comes with its own nutritional profile. For instance, a medium-sized Frozen Fanta Blue Raspberry contains 80 calories, and a medium Coca-Cola contains 210 calories. Mixing these beverages would keep customers from knowing exactly how many calories a cup contains.

Haracz also points out that some McDonald's locations have already transitioned to automated drink dispenser machines behind the counters, which would make mixing drinks a difficult task. Earlier this year, McDonald's announced its goal of transitioning away from self-service drink machines by 2032, with one of the reasons being that the new, automatic machines can boost service efficiency. However, they leave little to no room for customization.

The decision to mix or not to mix drinks, as Haracz exclaims, is now coming down to the individual server behind the counter. While plenty of servers will say no, you may be lucky enough to have a server willing to accommodate your request — so if you want a mixed beverage, it is certainly worth asking.

Even if a McDonald's employee refuses to customize your drink order, you can still find ways to tailor your beverage to your liking on your own. For example, you can create a cotton candy-flavored soda at McDonald's, which is as simple as ordering a Sprite and mixing in a few pumps of vanilla syrup, which you can obtain from the McCafé. Or, if you're willing to make two separate drink purchases, you can order each drink of your choosing individually and combine them yourself.