Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Food & Drink

McDonald’s is taking on Starbucks with its latest spinoff restaurant – a coffee shop

McDonald's new restaurant also has a silly name

By
Cos Mcs McDonalds
McDonald's

McDonald’s is entering a new game with the opening of their newest spinoff restaurant, CosMc’s, which opened on December 7th in Bolingbrook, Illinois. Unlike your typical fast food you’d expect from a McDonald’s-inspired menu, CosMc’s is intended to be more like a Starbucks, with a coffee-shop-inspired menu with exciting food and beverage options. This Starbucks rival is McDonald’s attempt to enter the specialty coffee chain industry without overwhelming its existing menu. After all, if you want a handcrafted coffee beverage, chances are McDonald’s isn’t the first place that comes to mind. But Starbucks might be.

The opening of CosMc’s

While the first CosMc’s location was opened in Illinois as a test for the company, McDonald’s has already announced its plans to open an additional nine locations by the end of 2024 in Texas. Interestingly enough, the name of CosMc’s is inspired by advertisements that aired in the late 1980s and early 1990s, which featured robot characters named CosMc. To go along with the robot and space vibe, the interior of each CosMc’s restaurant is designed with a futuristic space theme –which is a bit different from other coffee chains that are not themed, such as Starbucks or Dunkin’.

Recommended Videos

Is the menu comparable to Starbucks?

Since the first location of CosMc’s opened, patrons have quickly learned what to expect on the menu from this newest addition to the McDonald’s universe. Like Starbucks, the menu includes handcrafted and customizable beverages in both coffee and non-coffee varieties. The general beverage categories are quite similar to Starbucks, including frappés, iced tea drinks, lemonades, brews, and more. The customizable aspects of these drinks, which include syrups, flavor shots, and more, seem on par with consumer demands to personalize all aspects of orders.

Unlike Starbucks, however, it appears CosMc’s menu is slightly less coffee-heavy and more focused on fruity, refreshing beverages. Some examples of non-coffee menu items include the Blueberry Ginger Boost or the Island Pick-Me-Up Punch. If you do love coffee, there are still plenty of options to be had (both hot and iced), such as a classic Cappuccino or a more unique Churro Cold Brew Frappé.

Pouring cream in cold brew coffee
Magda Patsogianni / Pixabay

What this means for specialty drink lovers

If these coffee shops do well, CosMc’s could soon become a well-known name across the U.S. From unique blended coffee drinks like the S’mores Cold Brew to non-coffee drinks like the Sour Cherry Energy Burst — soon enough, we could all have another option of places to add to the list to get delicious specialty drinks.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Emily Caldwell
Emily Caldwell
Contributor
Emily is a freelance writer with a special focus on health, fitness, lifestyle, food, and nutrition topics. She holds a B.S…
Here are the benefits of taking vitamin D supplements – what you should know
Find out if you're getting enough Vitamin D or if you need help getting more
A close-up of a vitamin D capsule

It’s not always easy or feasible to consume a well-balanced and varied diet. Between juggling a busy schedule with minimal time for healthy food preparation, food allergies and intolerances, dietary preferences, and cultural eating habits, many of us fall short of meeting the nutritional recommendations for several key vitamins and minerals. Even if you cook at home and try to eat a healthy diet, you may be deficient in certain micronutrients because some essential vitamins and minerals are only found in a few food sources or are only present in low concentrations.
Vitamin D is a prime example of a vital nutrient that is not found in many common foods in the standard American diet, nor is it necessarily well absorbed when consumed in food sources. Rather, exposure of the skin to sunlight is the primary means by which the body’s vitamin D levels are increased, as exposure to UVB rays stimulates the production of vitamin D.
However, as the hours of daylight dwindle in the winter and the sun becomes less intense, it becomes increasingly difficult to meet your vitamin D needs. Because vitamin D plays several key physiological roles, it may be advisable to take vitamin D supplements. Keep reading for our helpful primer on the functions and benefits of vitamin D, foods high in vitamin D, and whether vitamin D supplementation may be useful.

What is vitamin D?
Along with vitamins A, E, and K, vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin, which means it's stored in the body rather than excreted like vitamins C and B vitamins. However, unlike any other vitamin, vitamin D is actually a steroid hormone produced from cholesterol when skin cells are exposed to UVB rays. In addition to the endogenous production of vitamin D, there are two different dietary forms of the nutrient:

Read more
11 best coffee books: Brew up a pot of knowledge
Find out everything there is to know about your cup of joe

Our steaming hot obsession with the benefits of coffee is shared by many, and it's only getting more and more prevalent. In fact, it's pretty hard to drink java without falling in love with the farming, roasting, flavors, recipes, craft, and buzz of this product — the entirety of coffee is all at once so simple and yet so incredibly complex.

Our picks for the best coffee books
After pouring over dozens of titles and drinking the best coffee around, we found the best books about coffee that will teach you something new and interesting about your favorite drink, whether you’re a simple fan or a highly trained barista. This list of the best coffee books covers sociology, entrepreneurship, fair trade, and how to make the best cup of coffee from the comfort of your own home, so put on a fresh pot and enjoy these good reads.

Read more
Dining at Sandals Grande St. Lucian: A Caribbean paradise with 11 all-inclusive restaurants
11 great restaurants, one resort
st lucia

While St. Lucia is known for its picturesque Piton mountains and lush rainforests, Sandals Grande St. Lucian is also changing the game as an attractive destination for foodies. With 11 restaurants included at this all-inclusive resort, this luxury Caribbean paradise will surely get a food lover's attention. Although there are three Sandals all-inclusive resorts on the island of Saint Lucia, Sandals Grande St. Lucian is the largest resort offering the most dining options. If you're thinking about which of the many St. Lucia resorts to visit, keep reading as we dive into every dining option at this award-winning St. Lucia all-inclusive. We've tried them all to give you "the real" on each of the 12 dining options.

Dining and travel tips St. Lucia
Regardless of which of the dining options you choose, there are a few things you should know about dining at Sandals Grande St. Lucian. First and foremost, remember that you're in the Caribbean -- not the United States. The portion sizes at most dining spots on site are much smaller than you'd expect with most American portions. With this in mind, don't be afraid to order multiple appetizers or even head to more than one dining location in an evening. After all, it's all-inclusive, which means you can eat as much or as little as you'd like.

Read more