I Tried And Ranked All Of McDonald’s New Drinks, Including The Viral Dirty Sodas — Here's What's Worth Ordering
One of these might ruin regular soda for you forever.
Dearest readers, I have a confession to make: I might have a new fast-food fixation because McDonald's has officially stepped into the dirty soda game.
Who needs to hunt down their closest Swig location? Certainly not you, since you can now take a five-minute drive to your local McD's to get in on the famous Utah drink that Secret Lives of Mormon Wives fans can't get enough of.
I really never thought I'd be a fan of the soda-cream-syrup combo but, well, here we are. And right on the heels of Slice's canned dirty soda release, the timing couldn't be more apt.
But that's not all — McDonald's also released three new Starbucks-style refreshers. In other words, they gave us six new buzzy drinks just for existing. Obviously, I had to try them (and rank and grade them — the whole shebang!) to see whether they're really up to snuff.
McDonald's New Beverage Lineup
Here's a full list of all six bevies, which officially launched on May 6 and will be available permanently (!!!) nationwide.
Time to rank these bad boys. I'll give each dirty soda a score of 1–5 in the following categories: flavor strength, fizziness, and creaminess, with 1 indicating poor performance and 5 indicating great performance.
The refreshers will also get a 1–5 score in three categories: flavor strength, how "refreshing" they are, and the performance of their solid fruit mix-ins. Again, 1 indicates poor performance, while 5 indicates perfect performance.
Ready? Let's dig into some (hopefully) stellar sippers.
Taste Test: The Dirty Sodas
Orange Dream — I'd like to kick this one out of the dirty soda lineup altogether. It's not even carbonated, which was ultimately its downfall.
Sprite Berry Blast — I'm a sucker for a gorgeous drink. Who isn't? Eye candy is just as alluring as edible candy, and McDonald's Sprite Berry Blast gives you both.
Dirty Dr Pepper — I feel obligated to warn Dr Pepper fans before ordering this: It'll ruin regular Dr Pepper for you forever.
Taste Test: The Refreshers
Mango Pineapple Refresher — I adore mango and pineapple equally, so by all appearances, this refresher should have been a slam dunk for my taste buds. Unfortunately, I found neither mango nor pineapple in this drink.
Strawberry Watermelon Refresher — First of all, I can give this drink top marks as far as its refreshing-ness goes. After all, it is strawberry-flavored, and anything strawberry makes me feel like a summer breeze is imminent.
Blackberry Passion Fruit Refresher — This was my favorite refresher of the bunch, but that's not necessarily saying much — I'm sure you've gathered that I was pretty underwhelmed by all McDonald's refreshers.
