McDonald’s and Coke's Marriage Might Need a Refresher

Summary

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Podcast Summary: McDonald’s and Coke's Marriage Might Need a Refresher

Podcast: The Journal.
Hosts: Imani Moiz (guest host), Ryan Knutson
Episode Date: June 25, 2026

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Overview

This episode examines the legendary 70-year partnership between McDonald’s and Coca-Cola. Once an unbeatable symbol of American business synergy, the relationship now faces challenges as tastes shift and both brands adapt to dramatic change in the beverage market. Industry experts and Journal reporters discuss how the collaboration shaped the fast food landscape, why it’s at a crossroads, and how both companies are experimenting to keep up with consumer demands for more diverse drinks.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Historic Partnership Origins

• How It Began:
  • In 1955, Coke salesman Wadi Pratt pitched to Ray Kroc in an Illinois parking lot, proposing Coca-Cola as the signature drink for the fledgling McDonald’s chain.
  • Their handshake deal kicked off what would become one of the most iconic brand partnerships in American business ([00:28]–[02:08]).
• Uniformity & Scaling:
  • Kroc’s vision for national consistency meant picking suppliers that could grow with McDonald’s—including Coca-Cola ([01:08]).
  • "Kroc liked the idea, and so he decided that Coca Cola... would be the beverage of choice in his McDonald's restaurants." – Ryan ([01:47])

Brand Partnership Impact

• Global Expansion:
  • As McDonald’s grew globally, Coke "helped it expand all over the world," introducing Coke to major markets, including Russia ([05:23], [05:35]).
  • Coca-Cola created its own dedicated McDonald’s division (TMD), underscoring the account’s value ([05:53]).
• Cultural Milestones:
  • The duo pioneered American food culture together—notably inventing the value meal, pairing burgers, fries, and Coke at an affordable price ([06:17]–[07:03]).
  • "They became a really key partner in developing the extra value meals..." – Ryan ([06:26])

The McDonald's Coke: Unique Flavor Experience

• "If you get a McDonald's Coke, it's crisper than if you were to get it anywhere else. So they put a lot of time and effort into that." – Laura Cooper ([07:57])
• McDonald’s uses special water filtration, custom syrup concentrations, and syrup is delivered in stainless steel, not plastic, all to ensure a distinctive, high-quality Coke taste ([08:13]–[08:31]).

Results & Mutual Benefit

• Sales Boost:
  • The value meal collaborations and exclusive drinks led to sales booms for both brands ([07:00]–[07:23]).
• Unique Synergy:
  • "One plus one is greater than two or one plus one is three." The companies’ teams are so enmeshed that their collaboration is viewed as producing more together than separately ([09:08]).

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Winds of Change: Changing Tastes and Market Pressures

Shifts in Consumer Preferences

• Customers are increasingly seeking alternatives to traditional sodas—think fruity refreshers, cold foam, Boba, and matcha-based drinks, as evidenced by Starbucks’ $2B refreshers and Taco Bell’s $1B Baja Blast ([09:39]–[10:06]).
  • "There's just all kinds of variants of beverages today. And traditional soda just isn't enough." – Ryan ([10:06])

Beverage Business is Booming

• Global drinks market is now worth $100B.
• Beverages are high-margin and highly lucrative; McDonald's wants a bigger share ([10:49]).

Franchisee & Executive Pressure

• McDonald’s management & franchisees are pushing for innovation, concerned the "Coke range had stalled out a bit." ([10:58])
  • "They wanted to offer something different than just Coke for our consumers." – Ryan ([10:58])

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Experimenting & Evolving: McDonald's Tries New Directions

Unsuccessful Innovations

• Coke Freestyle Machines:
  • Coca-Cola offered customizable soda machines; McDonald's tested, but found them "cumbersome and expensive." ([12:56]–[13:20])
    • "They just did not perform in ways that they hoped." – Ryan ([12:56])
• Bottled Coke Beverages:
  • Bottled brands like Monster Energy, Vitamin Water tested, didn’t catch on ([13:27]–[13:33]).

The ‘Cosmcs’ Experiment

• Concept Launch:
  • In 2023, McDonald’s launched Cosmcs, a spinoff aimed at younger snack & beverage-seekers.
  • Cosmcs featured drinks as the main attraction—including frappes, churro chillers, popping boba, and more, some not from Coke ([14:01]–[14:53]).
• Outcome:
  • Cosmcs was discontinued, but its drink innovations endured. Six new beverage options were added to the regular menu ([14:53]).
    • This included viral ‘dirty sodas’ (sodas mixed with syrups, juices—e.g., Sprite dirty soda, hi C, Dr. Pepper with cold foam) ([15:01], [15:20]).
      • "A dirty soda is essentially if you were to take a soda and put different syrups and juices and things in it." – Laura Cooper ([15:28])

Testing New Drinks, Chasing Trends

• Dedicated tests at HQ attracted influencers and generated buzz:
  • “I like this better than Starbucks... the cold foam ones have a richness to them and I think this is exactly what the company wants.” – Ryan ([16:19])

New Partnerships on the Horizon

• McDonald’s is set to launch a Red Bull partnership, marking the first time a non-Coke energy drink will be featured ([16:36]–[17:18]).
  • “I do think when the Red Bull drinks come out, that will be a real splash. Because Red Bull is a big name, it has a lot of currency, including among younger consumers.” – Ryan ([16:50])

Strategy Shift: Beverages First

• McDonald’s aims to attract snack/drink-focused customers, flipping the classic “food-with-a-drink” model to a “drink-with-snack” order ([17:18]–[17:27]).
  • “So you get a drink, maybe you get McNuggets... but you're not getting a whole Big Mac meal. And so they think this is gonna encourage new customers...” – Ryan ([17:27])

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The Future of the Partnership

An Adaptive Relationship

• Both firms express continued commitment:
  • “McDonald's says it's still deeply committed to its long standing partnership with Coke... Coke has said the partnership remains, quote, fantastic.” – Imani Moiz ([18:16])
• Coca-Cola is also innovating, demonstrating new colorful, TikTok-friendly drinks and experimenting with Boba at trade shows ([18:37]).
  • “And I think Coke, you know, in talking to them at that trade show, the executives there acknowledged that they need to be offering new options...” – Ryan ([19:27])

Business Reality

• The market is changing, and so must they, but legacy synergies still matter.
  • “They're just evolving in a changing market.” – Imani Moiz ([18:16])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Quote | Speaker | Timestamp | | -------| ------- | --------- | | “Coke should be the signature drink at McDonald’s.” | Wadi Pratt, via narration | [01:40] | | “If you get a McDonald's Coke, it's crisper than if you were to get it anywhere else.” | Laura Cooper | [07:57] | | “One plus one is greater than two or one plus one is three.” | Ryan | [09:08] | | “Traditional soda just isn't enough... there's just been an explosion.” | Ryan | [10:06] | | “A dirty soda is essentially if you were to take a soda and put different syrups and juices and things in it.” | Laura Cooper | [15:28] | | “I like this better than Starbucks... the cold foam ones have a richness to them.” | Ryan | [16:19] | | “I do think when the Red Bull drinks come out, that will be a real splash.” | Ryan | [16:50] | | “McDonald's says it's still deeply committed to its long standing partnership with Coke...” | Imani Moiz | [18:16] |

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Origins of the partnership: [00:11]–[02:08]
• Partnership impacts and value meal creation: [05:03]–[07:03]
• Unique McDonald's Coke formula: [07:46]–[08:50]
• Market shifts and demand for new drinks: [09:39]–[11:23]
• Failed new drink innovations (Freestyle, bottled): [12:56]–[13:53]
• Cosmcs experiment and beverage innovations: [14:01]–[15:20]
• Dirty sodas defined and influencer testing: [15:20]–[16:36]
• New Red Bull deal & beverages-first strategy: [16:36]–[17:27]
• State of the partnership and future outlook: [18:16]–[19:27]

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Conclusion

While the McDonald’s–Coke partnership remains iconic, both companies are being pushed to evolve. Driven by changing consumer preferences and a rapidly expanding beverage market, McDonald’s is experimenting with new drinks, including non-Coke options like Red Bull, and is reimagining its beverage strategy to capture younger, trend-sensitive audiences. The relationship is not over, but it’s being refreshened for a new era—one where innovation and adapting to what customers want is more crucial than ever.

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Transcript

[Ryan]

Hey, it's Ryan. Our colleague Imani Moiz is here to

[Imani Moiz]

guest host today's episode.

[Ryan]

Here it is.

[Imani Moiz]

McDonald's and Coca Cola are two of the world's most recognizable brands. And their success has been in part due to their more than 70 year collaboration. It all began in an Illinois parking lot in 1955.

[Ryan]

So Wadi Pratt was a salesman at Coca Cola, and he was looking to develop new business for the company. And he met with a new franchise restaurant CEO named Ray Kroc.

[Imani Moiz]

Our colleague Heather Haddon covers restaurants, and

[Ryan]

he found Ray Kroc outside of a restaurant he had just opened in the Chicago suburbs. And they struck up a friendship and a business relationship that would span for decades and decades.

[Imani Moiz]

McDonald's was basically a startup back then. This was the first location east of the Mississippi. But Kroc had plans to go bigger.

[Ryan]

One thing Ray Kroc was really known for is uniformity and consistency in his restaurants. So he wanted to pick suppliers that could scale as much as his ambitions for the company. So he was seeing this very small restaurant chain that he had just embarked on as one day operating restaurants all over the country. And so he wanted products that he could serve in these restaurants all over the country. And they wanted it to be uniform, whether that was ketchup or cola.

[Imani Moiz]

So in the parking lot that day, Wadi Pratt had a pitch. Coke should be the signature drink at McDonald's.

[Ryan]

Kroc liked the idea, and so he decided that Coca Cola, the regular Coke, would be the beverage of choice in his McDonald's restaurants.

[Laura Cooper]

Striking a storied handshake agreement to just marry these two brands. You know, so it's really very all American.

[Imani Moiz]

The story that's our colleague Laura Cooper. She covers the beverage industry.

[Laura Cooper]

So while this, you know, started out as Coca Cola, it's grown to involve, for instance, Sprite and all kinds of different drinks. Over the years,

[Imani Moiz]

the partnership has helped make both brands into American icons. But the relationship is having issues because McDonald's is no longer content planning all of its drinks around Coke.

[Ryan]

Tastes are changing. People are looking for things other than just soda at McDonald's.

[Imani Moiz]

Welcome to the Journal, our show about money, business and power. I'm Imani moiz. It's Thursday, June 2020, 25th. Coming up on the show. For 70 years, Coke and McDonald's have been joined at the SIP. But customers are thirsty for something new.

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[Imani Moiz]

Back in the 50s, when McDonald's and Coca Cola first went into business together, brand partnerships weren't really a thing.

[Ryan]

Fast food was in its infancy then. So there really wasn't big national chains like we know today. You know, there was regional burger players, there was regional restaurants.

[Imani Moiz]

Ray Kroc wanted deals with national suppliers to keep things simple and cheap.

[Ryan]

And it also meant that the quality and what you could expect at a McDonald's was uniform all over the country. As it grew, and clearly McDonald's has grown and grown, and since that fateful

[Imani Moiz]

parking lot handshake, one of its longest standing suppliers has been Coca Cola. The company has been part of McDonald's DNA as the chain has grown to become a global franchise.

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[Ryan]

You know, for Coke, McDonald's really helped it expand all over the world because McDonald's had a lot of these existing relationships and existing franchisees in other countries.

[Imani Moiz]

McDonald's helped introduce Coke products to Russia. As the restaurant expanded there, it became a huge market for Coca Cola.

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[Ryan]

the doors to its first restaurant in Moscow. And make no mistake, this was an

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event of major gastronomic proportions.

[Laura Cooper]

Coke took it very seriously. They also created their own division within Coca Cola called TMD, the McDonald's division, which is a separate division within Coca Cola that just deals with McDonald's. So it shows you how important the McDonald's account is.

[Imani Moiz]

Together, the two companies created the value meal and the idea that a McDonald's burger wouldn't be complete without an ice cold Coke.

[Ryan]

They became a really key partner in developing the extra value meals that we all know that McDonald's and now many other chains offer size order of our

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golden fries plus a large Coke for just 39 cents more. Try a triple cheeseburger with fries and

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a Coke in an extra value meal.

[Ryan]

So that's a sandwich or chicken nuggets and fries and a beverage. You know, these were novelties in the 1990s when they first started expanding across McDonald's restaurants. And you would get all that for an affordable price. Cheaper than buying all these items a la carte.

[Imani Moiz]

These meal deals boosted sales for both companies.

[Ryan]

Here are your 8 Big Macs, 10 fries, and your Coca Cola Classic. You must really be hungry. Nope, just lucky. One in eight Coke was on the TV screen for so long for McDonald's ads and generating sales in those restaurants. And for McDonald's to have this, you know, key partnership expanded its line of products.

[Imani Moiz]

Coke products aren't the only drinks on the menu at McDonald's. Dr. Pepper got a spot on the fountains, and some locations even briefly experimented with selling bottled Pepsi products. But Coke has always been king.

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[Imani Moiz]

So McDonald's brought Coke to the world, and Coke brought customers to McDonald's for a drink they couldn't get anywhere else, literally. Because Coke at McDonald's is unique.

[Laura Cooper]

They have worked really hard to make Coke the best tasting in all of the McDonald's restaurants. A lot of people say that if you get a McDonald's Coke, it's crisper than if you were to get it anywhere else. So they put a lot of time and effort into that.

[Imani Moiz]

Have you ever had a Coke at McDonald's and thought there was something kind of different about it that's not just in your head? McDonald's says the water they use for Coke is filtered in a specific way. It's also chilled to a particular temperature. And the syrup concentration is special, too.

[Ryan]

The regular Coca Cola syrup is trucked to McDonald's restaurants and is siphoned off in a hose, which means it's never housed in plastic containers, which both sides say, you know, that keeps the quality and the taste far superior than you get in other restaurants or what you would get off the shelf.

[Imani Moiz]

That sounds like a lot of effort for a soft drink. Has it paid off for the companies?

[Ryan]

They would say so, yes. So McDonald's is the biggest restaurant that Coke has among its customers.

[Imani Moiz]

Insiders talk about the McDonald's Coca Cola collab as greater than the sum of its parts.

[Ryan]

There is an expression that you can hear within these Companies that one plus one is greater than two or one plus one is three. And I think that does reflect that, that they view their work together has better themselves beyond just what they would be independently. You know, they share data. They have this team within Koch that's just devoted to McDonald's business, that they just get more out of this work together than they would by themselves.

[Imani Moiz]

It's been a 70 year marriage, but customers changing tastes are starting to complicate the relationship. Specifically, the demand for more drink options. And competitors are cashing in. Taco Bell's Mountain Dew Baja Blast, a custom collaboration with Pepsi, now brings in $1 billion a year. Fruity refresher drinks at Starbucks are a $2 billion brand.

[Ryan]

You know, anyone who has gone to a Starbucks in the last decade knows this is the way things are going. There's more cold foam, there's more Boba, there's Matcha in beverages. You know, there's just all kinds of variants of beverages today. And traditional soda just isn't enough. So it's really just been an explosion in these different kinds of chains offering all kinds of drinks.

[Imani Moiz]

And beverages are easy money for restaurants, right?

[Laura Cooper]

Yeah, beverages are big business. I mean, beverages have some good margins. I think that they can bring people in and make more money for companies. And so it's definitely an important category for restaurants.

[Imani Moiz]

McDonald's estimates the global market for drinks has grown to be worth about $100 billion, and the company wants a bigger piece of that.

[Ryan]

McDonald's franchisees and executives for a long time now have been asking for more options. They've been asking for different things that they can provide in their restaurants. I think there was just kind of a sense that the Coke range had stalled out a bit. And that has meant that, you know, McDonald's has had to look around and say, we need to offer something different than just Coke for our consumers.

[Imani Moiz]

After the break, McDonald's explores opening up its relationship with Coca Cola.

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[Imani Moiz]

Things are changing for McDonald's and Coke. One former McDonald's franchisee who worked closely with Coca Cola told Heather quote, coke gets the message that we want more from them. And Coke has offered McDonald's some new options over the years.

[Ryan]

One of the things that Coke pointed to in their arsenal of innovation was these freestyle machines, which you might have seen if you'd gone to a movie theater and a lot of hotels have them where you could mix all different kind of flavors together, you know, just punching buttons. And McDonald's did try it. McDonald's franchisees did test them in their restaurants and they just did not perform in ways that they hoped.

[Laura Cooper]

A lot of people found them cumbersome and expensive, so they didn't embrace it.

[Imani Moiz]

McDonald's also tried offering bottled Coke brands like Monster Energy and Vitamin Water and

[Ryan]

then those bottled beverage tests, they also just didn't do as well. You know, it wasn't the same level of quality and freshness as those fountain beverages and it was harder for people to know they were there. You know, when you're going through a drive through, it's just not the same as knowing what's on the fountains at McDonald's restaurants.

[Imani Moiz]

Offering Coke products in new ways wasn't quite cutting it. So McDonald's tried something really different.

[Ryan]

McDonald's had a very short lived restaurant concept called Cosmcs, which had started in 2023. And this was going to be a new kind of spinoff concept that would be more oriented to these younger consumers looking for treats and snacks and drinks and pick me ups, particularly in the afternoon, which is what McDonald's is really trying to compete for. More afternoon customers. Younger customers.

[Imani Moiz]

At cosmc's drinks were the star and not everything on the menu came from Coca Cola.

[Ryan]

And so it offered, you know, some snacks and donuts, but what it was really geared towards is beverages. And so they had some frappes, they had a churro chiller popping boba drinks. And some of these drinks Coke was involved in, but others they weren't.

[Imani Moiz]

Eventually McDonald's pulled the plug on Cosmcs, but what worked was the drinks. They added six new options to regular McDonald's menus.

[Ryan]

Earlier this year there was three refreshers that include freeze dried fruit in them and then a Sprite drink, a dirty Dr. Pepper and then I believe it was a hi C drink. And these had cold foam in them and you could customize the drinks to a limited degree.

[Imani Moiz]

These last three are part of the dirty soda drink trend. So maybe for the uninitiated, what is a dirty soda?

[Laura Cooper]

A dirty soda is essentially if you were to take a soda and put different syrups and juices and things in it. So for instance, I had one recently that was like, I think it was Pepsi cream and wild cherry. And McDonald's is doing that with different sodas, but namely Sprite.

[Imani Moiz]

Heather tried some of them.

[Ryan]

So I went to the headquarters and I, me and a lot of influencers were there to try these drinks. I'm at McDonald's global headquarters to taste refreshers, dirty sodas and other cold beverages that the chain is rolling out to US restaurants soon. The drinks are, yeah, very brightly colored. They're very sweet. McDonald's just came out with some new fun drinks, so let's try them.

[Imani Moiz]

Do you guys know that McDonald's came

[Ryan]

out with new refreshers? I like this better than Starbucks. I know, I know the cold foam ones have a richness to them and I think this is exactly what the company wants. They want something that looks new and fresh and exciting and hope will trend, you know, on TikTok and social media.

[Imani Moiz]

Beyond these new dirty sodas, McDonald's also has a whole new partnership in the works, a deal with Red Bull, which is not owned by Coke. Coke says it respects McDonald's decision

[Ryan]

in August. We know through our reporting that they're going to start these Red Bull infused drinks. They're going to have syrups in them and other mix ins. I do think when the Red Bull drinks come out, that will be a real splash. Because Red Bull is a big name, it has a lot of currency, including among younger consumers. And this is a real first, this, this, this brand partnering. So big deal for both of those companies.

[Imani Moiz]

Instead of selling fast food with a drink on the side, with these new offerings, McDonald's is flipping the script, focusing on selling drinks first.

[Ryan]

McDonald's would love to have new customers coming to their restaurants for these beverages and they even served us what they believe customers will order with these drinks. So this is more for a snacking opportunity. So you get a drink, maybe you get McNuggets, maybe you get fries, maybe you get a cheeseburger. But you're not getting a whole Big Mac meal with these drinks. And so they think this is gonna encourage new customers, you know, coming in for these snacks and drinks, say in the afternoon. But they also wanna give their existing customers options.

[Imani Moiz]

So do you think Ray Kroc would approve?

[Ryan]

Well, Ray Kroc's biggest motto was they wanna be where customers are. If there is a big movement of customers towards something, they want to offer it. And they want to offer it bigger and better than anyone else.

[Imani Moiz]

McDonald's says it's still deeply committed to its long standing partnership with Coke and that it's been central to their success. Coke has said the partnership remains, quote, fantastic. And they're still collaborating with McDonald's on some of the new drinks. Both say there's no trouble in paradise. They're just evolving in a changing market.

[Ryan]

And what's interesting is Coke seems to recognize this too. I was at the restaurant association trade show and spent a lot of time at the Coke booth trying new drinks that they were offering. And there was a rainbow energy drink they were offering. They were, you know, had shakes, all kinds of TikTok friendly pinks and oranges in their beverages. They had Boba. So. And I think Coke, you know, in talking to them at that trade show, the executives there acknowledged that they need to be offering new options and try to do something for their customers who are restaurant chains, in part to keep people excited.

[Imani Moiz]

That's all for today. Thursday, June 25. The Journal is a co production of Spotify and the Wall Street Journal. If you like our show, follow us on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. We're out every weekday afternoon. Thanks for listening, See you tomorrow.

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