McDonald’s plans new energy drink and crafted soda lineup for U.S. restaurants

McDonald’s is asking restaurant crews to handle a more complicated cold-drink business, with a Red Bull Dragonberry Energizer and a slate of crafted sodas set to join U.S. menus. For crew members working the beverage station, that can mean more ingredient handling, more build steps, more storage decisions and more chances for a drive-thru or mobile order to go wrong when the rush hits.

The lineup includes drinks such as Dirty Dr Pepper and Mango Pineapple Refresher, and some of the new beverages are slated to roll out next month, while the energy drink lineup is expected to go on sale in August. McDonald’s is not treating this as a one-off promotion. The company has said its expanded beverage test was designed to learn “from operations to guest excitement” and to fine-tune equipment and execution with restaurant teams and Owner/Operators.

That matters because beverage stations are often one of the most labor-sensitive parts of a McDonald’s. A new cold drink can add another decision point to front counter, drive-thru and mobile orders, especially when crew members are already balancing fries, sandwich builds and delivery tickets. More customization can also mean more training and more manager time spent updating procedures so the same small station can keep moving during peak lunch and afternoon snack traffic.

The strategy is part of a broader push built out of CosMc’s, McDonald’s beverage-led test concept, which launched in Bolingbrook, Illinois, in December 2023. McDonald’s said in July 2025 that it would test a new beverage lineup in more than 500 U.S. restaurants across Wisconsin, Colorado and surrounding areas, then later said stand-alone pilot CosMc’s locations would close on a rolling basis starting in late June 2025. The message from the company is clear: it wants to bring the drinks back into the core McDonald’s system instead of keeping them in a separate side experiment.

That push also fits the business case. McDonald’s said beverages represent a $100 billion global opportunity, and in its February 2026 earnings discussion the company said new beverages drove incremental occasions across different dayparts and higher average check. Full-year 2025 systemwide sales topped $139 billion, while U.S. comparable sales rose 2.1%. The company has also reorganized around a new Restaurant Experience Team and separate category teams for beef, chicken and beverages/desserts.

For franchisees, the rollout is another example of how McDonald’s is trying to grow traffic without rebuilding the whole restaurant. Nearly 90% of U.S. locations are franchised, so every new drink has to work inside a system where owner-operators absorb the training, execution and equipment headaches. The upside is obvious: more check, more occasions, more afternoon business. The operational cost is just as real, and this time it starts at the beverage station.