McDonald’s takes a leaf out of Apple’s playbook to reinvent the straw
McDonald’s has set its finest designers on the task of reinventing the most basic of dining accoutrements, the straw to show that the design of even humble utensils needn’t suck.
Announced with much fanfare on Facebook Live, McDonald’s bigged-up their innovative J-shaped drinking tool during 20 minutes of unabashed hype. This presentation focused on the introduction of two side-holes within the tubular nozzle designed to double the flow rate of sugary liquid past the pursed lips of diners.
Dovetailing with the launch of its Chocolate Shamrock Shake the Suction Tube for Reverse Axial Withdrawal (or STRAW for short) the implement enables a split 50 per cent flow chocolate and mint into the mouth.
Seth Newburg, principal engineer and managing partner at NK Labs, who developed the tool in partnership with JACE, said: “It was a puzzling assignment but one with an ambitious goal. From a physics perspective, it's actually quite difficult to deliver a proportional amount of both chocolate and mint flavors with each sip. But that's exactly what we did. It's a marvel of fluid dynamics. Thanks Fibonacci sequence.”
Anyone hoping to suck it and see will have to track down one of just 2,000 of the limited-edition straws at select franchises with the purchase of a Chocolate Shamrock Shake.