Why McDonald's Sprite 'taste like TV static'

Some real answers behind the soft drink conspiracy

The next time you find yourself at McDonald’s, order yourself a large Sprite and take the lid off. Lift the cup up to your ear and, like a seashell to the ocean, the sound of crisp bubbles popping at the surface will tell you that you behold a perfectly fizzed beverage.

The first sip of a Sprite from is like a warning shot. The foamy drink attacks your tongue and infiltrates every inch behind your teeth. Unwillingly, your nose crinkles up and your eyes begin to water; you are fighting so hard that taste is an afterthought. You have to give it until the third or fourth sip for the sweet, syrupy lemon lime flavor to fully register. But once you settle in, the ride is wonderful. So, what is it that makes McDonald’s Sprite, “taste like when your arm goes to sleep?"

A pair of Tweets about the illustrious ‘McDonalds Sprite.’

Quality Control

If soda was a science, then McDonald’s would teach it. Nearly each one of their 40,000+ restaurants conducts their soda making via a standard set of a blueprint-backed quality control measures. Their model, which includes a reverse osmosis filtration system, chilled tubing, and the biggest vats of fresh soda syrup you have ever seen in your life, ensures that each of their beverages is served at its minimum temperature, with its maximum amount of carbonation, and with the same high quality water every time.

The signature “fizz” on a frosty McDonald’s beverage comes from a basic understanding of chemistry. Colder temperature=higher levels of CO2. Unlike most fast food chains and gas stations that serve pop, McDonald's can afford to keep fresh deliveries of soda syrup coming in via their signature, McDonald’s-specific 80-gallon stainless steel temperature-controlled vats of the stuff. The entire system—from vat, to soda, to your cup—is lined with insulated tubing that constantly keeps each beverage at or below 38 degrees Fahrenheit.

Coco-Cola delivers their sugary concentrates to McDonald’s restaurants uniquely—the company also inspects and maintains their working order every six months.

The Nostalgia Factor

As miserable as it sounds, most of us will probably spend our entire lives passing a McDonald’s restaurant more often than we see our own grandmothers. With that level of intoxication, there is ought to be some significance. For me, it is the the orange “Hi-C” drink that keeps me coming back—not only because made it into the country music hall of fame with the infamous Rodney Atkins lyric, "his fries went-a-flyin' and his orange drink covered his lap—" but also because it represents an aspect of my childhood that has carried over into my adult life.

There is somewhat of a safety net in knowing that, even if the whole world were burning down all around us, those golden glowing arches would still be beaming bright among the flames. Sometimes that thought is powerful, and sometimes it is powerful enough to find yourself in a McDonald’s drive thru at 11:00pm on a Friday night.

LeBron James and Dwight Howard played 1-on-1 for a bag of McDonald’s in this commercial from 2010.

Mariah Carey causally taking a break from life as a pop-star to enjoy McDonald’s in 1999.

Other Possible Suspects

McDonald’s claims that one of the reasons for the meme-worthy popularity of their drinks is that the wider straw that they use can deliver more of the beverage to your mouth in a shorter time—possible providing a better sipping experience. Among other corners of the internet, speculates theorize that McDonald’s uses a slightly higher ratio of soda syrup to water, allowing them to better offset the rate of ice melting in their drinks.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what makes a Sprite from McDonald’s slap harder than Will Smith.