McCafé® Drinks FAQs

As of 2016, about 56% of McDonald's total global coffee bean purchases were sustainably sourced using certifications such as Rainforest Alliance Certified™, Fair Trade USA or UTZ. Over half of our certified coffee purchases are from Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farms, including 100% of the beans used for our espresso in the U.S. and Canada. This is moving us toward our goal of 100% verified sustainable coffee, both hot and iced, by 2020.

Here in the U.S., in partnership with our franchisees along with McDonald's Canada, we invested $6.7 million in a farmer technical assistance program in Central America. Since the completion of the four-and-a-half year program, we helped nearly 15,000 coffee farmers produce more sustainably.

Farmers in the program saw amazing results. Participating farmers reported harvesting 45% yield increase compared to their neighbors.

In 2017, 54% of McCafé® coffee (64% of restaurant coffee globally and 11% of U.S. and Canada retail coffee) was sourced sustainably through Rainforest Alliance UTZ, Fair Trade International and Fair Trade USA certification, as well as programs approved by the McCafé Sustainability Improvement Platform, a framework to guide our entire coffee supply chain. Over half of our certified coffee purchases are from Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farms, including 100% of the beans used for our espresso in the U.S. and Canada. This is moving us toward our goal of sustainably sourcing 100% of our ground and whole bean coffee globally by 2020*

Here in the U.S., in partnership with our franchisees along with McDonald's Canada, we invested $6.7 million in a farmer technical assistance program in Central America. During the four-and-a-half year program, we helped train nearly 15,000 coffee farmers to produce more sustainably.

Farmers in the program saw amazing results. Participating farmers reported harvesting on average 45% yield increase compared to their neighbors.

Learn more about our efforts to advance coffee sustainability.

McDonald's switched to a double-walled paper cup to meet our customers’ environmental sustainability preferences and to support the current industry trend and regulations to move away from using foam.