McDonald’s has spent a lot of time over the past year doubling down on the basics. That’s not a bad thing, as improving your core products can produce massive results.
CEO Chris Kempczinski has made it clear that McDonald’s plans to hone in on its most essential menu items.
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“Our core menu remains at the heart of our business,” he said during its fourth-quarter earnings call.
That focus has included tweaking the recipe for the chain’s absolute centerpiece item — its hamburger. Under what the chain called its “Best Burger” initiative, McDonald’s has made small but important tweaks to its burger-based products:
Softer, pillowy buns that are freshly toasted to a golden brown Perfectly melted cheese that will make you want to savor every last bit off the wrapper Juicier, caramelized flavor from adding white onions to the patties while they’re still on the grill Even more of everyone’s favorite Big Mac sauce, bringing more tangy sweetness in every Big Mac bite
Admitting you can improve products that date back to 1955 is actually harder than you think. Many chains only look forward, so it’s a big deal that McDonald’s has been looking at its menu with an idea toward improving the overall customer experience.
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“We found that small changes, like tweaking our process to get hotter, meltier cheese and adjusting our grill settings for a better sear, added up to a big difference in making our burgers more flavorful than ever,” said McDonald’s Senior Culinary Innovation Director Chad Schafer.
Now, the chain has turned its attention to fixing another problem in a core item.
McDonald’s has improved its core burger offering.
Image source: Shutterstock
McDonald’s fixes a popular beverage
Some people swear by McDonald’s drinks. There are people who think its fountain Coke and Diet Coke are the best way possible to enjoy those beverages.
Many McDonald’s customers, however, have not been happy with one of its offerings. They don’t like the chain’s lemonade, and that’s something McDonald’s has heard.
“McDonald’s has updated their lemonade offerings! The new lemonade is made with lemon juice, lemon pulp, and cane sugar; it can also be ordered mixed with either sweet or unsweet tea. While certain regions saw this as early as March 2023, the drink was added to the nationwide menu in May 2025,” SodaSeekers reported.
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Some were surprised at the ingredients.
“Now with real lemon?” @sirgoraji wrote.
The new version does contain real lemon, although how much remains a question. McDonald’s only shares the following on its nutrition page.
“Squeeze a little bit of summer in every sip with this refreshing, ice-cold classic. McDonald’s Lemonade recipe includes real lemon juice, bits of lemon pulp, and real cane sugar. There are 120 calories in a small Lemonade drink,” it posted.
McDonald’s has big beverage plans
Lemonade won’t be the only beverage change McDonald’s makes.
“Later this year, in partnership with our franchisees, we’ll be launching a beverage test in the U.S. in some of our existing McDonald’s restaurants that will incorporate new menu items inspired by CosMc’s. We’ll share more details on this in the coming months, as we continue to test, learn, and position ourselves for growth in this space,” Kempczinski said during the chain’s first-quarter earnings call.
The CEO shared that the new concept stores have created some interesting data for the chain.
“In beverages, for example, we’ve discovered some interesting learnings through our CosMc’s test, which has better informed our understanding of consumers’ customization preferences and interests in new emerging beverage categories,” he added.
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Kempczinski sees a lot of growth potential in beverage.
“We expect beverages is going to be a place where there’s significant growth in the profit pool, and we’re frankly, we think there’s more that we can be doing to capture our fair share of that” he said. “And we capture on coffee; for example, we’re probably roughly around 10% of the coffee share. We think we can be doing better than that, and then there’s growth in other places.”
