McDonald’s (and other global chains) have different ingredients depending on their locale. That includes coffee beans. In Canada, McDonald’s does indeed have (probably) the best chain coffee. But that hasn’t always been true.
Just about twenty years ago, McDonald’s had consistently bad coffee. Tim Horton’s had two roasts: one very bad one, and one good one. The Tim’s strategy was unique: serve bad coffee for seven weeks or so at each location, and then serve the good expensive stuff for one week. They had figured out that people would drink bad coffee every day for weeks without getting too fed up, and right before they had enough, they would introduce the good coffee. People would suddenly notice how good the coffee was, and write off their bad experiences after a week of good stuff. It was a smart strategy.
However, it was (as you can imagine) a difficult and expensive strategy. Making sure your local Tim’s were all on slightly different schedules for this, particularly since they were franchised, was a bit of a nightmare. The supply chain was apparently very difficult to wrangle.
At that time, McDonald’s was dying in Canada, and wanted to make inroads into our market. Their Canadian president knew the way there was donuts and coffee — he smartly noted Tim’s success and wanted to replicate it. McDonald’s coffee was not good, and they needed a new roast. At the time, their beans were better than the bad Tim’s beans, but worse than the good stuff by a mile.
Tim’s wanted something that was cheap, easy, and reliable to source. They wanted a profit centre.
McDonald’s wanted something that was good. Price wasn’t a huge sticking point, because they just needed an in to a new market.
So they made a trade. Since then, McDonald’s has been using only (what used to be) Tim’s good beans in Canada. Tim Horton’s has been using McDonald’s bad beans since the same time, and no longer has “good weeks.”
My understanding is that this bean has become the staple for McDonald’s in many countries.
I know this all sounds outrageous. I heard it from a guy who was in the supply chain during the transition, and it jives with my experience with the coffees at the time, so I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt.
Edit: sorry all for being off topic. Ignore this and carry on. I would happily wear an Apple Watch Ultra to any McDonald’s or Tim Horton’s.