McDonald's Sprite

About

McDonald's Sprite refers to jokes about how the lemon-lime soda Sprite seems to taste different at McDonald's than it does separately. The jokes often compare the beverage to a hard liquor or other intoxicant, and that it has special powers.

Origin

While the precise date in which jokes about the special quality of McDonald's Sprite is unknown, they can be traced roughly to the beginning of 2017. On January 10th, 2017, Brockhampton member and musician Kevin Abstract^[1] tweeted "mcdonald's sprite taste different," gaining over 80 retweets and 560 likes.

Spread

Jokes began becoming more popular in the summer of 2017. On July 7th, Twitter user @TripleOgi_^[2] tweeted "McDonald's sprite damn near stronger than liquor g," gaining over 8,200 retweets and 13,000 likes (shown below, left). On August 3rd, user @MyDickNeedsCPR^[3] tweeted, "McDonald's sprite stronger than Hennessy straight," gaining over 22,000 retweets and 54,000 likes (shown below, right).

Spoon University^[4] posted an article explaining that there is a reason McDonald's Sprite tastes different than Sprite from other establishments. Writer Ellie Gilchrist that McDonald's Sprite "uses a higher ratio of syrup concentrate to carbonated water," filters their water more than other establishments, ensuring that the Sprite is "gold standard," and keeps both the syrup and water in its soda fountains chilled at all times. Over the following two years, Twitter users have continued joking about McDonald's Sprite. On June 14th, 2019, Twitter user CapTn0Cat^[5] tweeted a picture of a deceased alligator, saying "McDonald's Sprite got him," gaining over 40,000 retweets and 140,000 likes (shown below, left). User @mrtiredeyes^[6] tweeted a video of a bird appearing to be dancing, captioning it "me after one sip of mcdonalds sprite," gaining over 54,000 retweets and 200,000 likes (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References