WASHINGTON — Regular old straws are no good for slurping down McDonald’s new Shamrock shakes. It takes “the STRAW” to maximize the experience.
“The STRAW,” short for “Suction Tube for Reverse Axial Withdrawal,” is essentially a curved straw with multiple holes — the fast food company’s highly-engineered, doubly exclusive product designed to provide optimal Chocolate Shamrock Shake satisfaction.
The limited-edition milkshake comes in two tiers: chocolate on the bottom, mint on the top. The impossibility of sipping both flavors at once prompted McDonald’s to bring in not one, but two aerospace engineering companies to redesign the straw.
“It was a puzzling assignment but one with an ambitious goal,” said Seth Newburg, principal engineer and managing partner at NK Labs, in a McDonald’s news release. “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.”
McDonald’s is releasing just 2,000 of these straws in participating locations across the country. Customers who buy a Chocolate Shamrock Shake will receive one of these exclusive straws on a first come, first served basis.
While none will be available in D.C., Maryland or Virginia, some will be available in Pennsylvania, New York, South Carolina and Tennessee on Feb. 24 and March 1. Find the full list of participating locations on McDonald’s website.
“And though it might sound silly to some, putting our guests first sometimes means rethinking even the humble straw,” said Darci Forrest, senior director of menu innovation at McDonald’s in the news release.
