We Tried All 4 Of The New Caramel Apple Drinks At McDonald’s

Somehow, McDonald’s managed not to make a big deal out of the release of their four new seasonal drinks they released for this year’s fall menu. But hey, that doesn’t mean we’re not going to. Especially since their fall drink menu was a shift away from the pumpkin spice craze, we knew we’d have to try out this new approach to fall sipping.

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The four drinks released are all caramel apple flavored and range from frappés to hot lattes. Not only did we want to see if the new flavor is any good, but we wanted to know once and for all what setting the flavor is most fitting for. Here are our thoughts.

The Caramel Apple Iced Coffee

This is the kind of drink that you have high hopes for and then ultimately end up taking one sip of and throwing away. Personally, I hate wasting food. Potentially more than any other food faux pas, this one is the one that irks me the most. But the artificial flavor of the apple with the watered down iced coffee and insufficient amount of creamer makes this a generally unpleasant drink to sip on. Out of everything on the new menu, this is one that I would recommend the least.

The Caramel Apple Iced Latte

This one was very similar to the iced coffee in the sense that it really let the artificial flavor of the apple shine, but at least for this one it had a positive aspect of the iced latte. McDonald’s coffee is generally one of the better fast food varieties and their iced latte is at least creamy and doesn’t have the worst espresso flavor either. It had a baseline of something good to work with―it’s just that weird apple flavor that ruined it.

The Caramel Apple Hot Latte

I do get the point that McDonald’s was trying to get across with having their autumnal drinks available in a hot variety as well. I mean, there’s nothing quite like having a hot latte to cozy up with a drizzly autumn morning. I just don’t think that this flavoring was executed well enough for that to be a positive experience. Without a bunch of other ingredients to kind of mellow out the artificial apple flavor, I can’t really imagine finishing this drink. The first couple of sips were fine, but not great. And I definitely wouldn’t order it again when there are plenty of better options of the McDonald’s coffee menu.

The Caramel Apple Frappé

To me, this is the only drink that I was actually excited by the flavor of. And, it’s the only drink I would actually recommend you to try out if you’re interested in this new flavor from McDonald’s. Not only does the more milkshake-like context make more sense for the sweetness of the flavor, but it’s also the only context in which the artificial flavor is truly palatable. I’d order it again if I wanted a fall drink and happened to be at the McDonald’s drive-thru, especially since the caramel whipped cream and cinnamon-apple streusel topping was so yummy. I can’t say I’d go super far out of my way to have it again though.