A fancy drink may well be the most exciting thing to order at a fast food outlet these days. Exhibit A: Hungry Jackโs was the latest to collaborate with Pistachio Papi, adding two new items, a vanilla shake and a soft-serve dessert, topped with the nutty green sauce. On the day of launch, queues went down the street.
The burger chain is one among a handful of the countryโs largest fast-food giants leaning hard into the trend of elaborate, brightly coloured cold and frozen drinks, often served with chewy toppings or popular flavours and sauces.
Soft drink consumption is in long-term decline, according to IBISWorld, as drinkers turn to the plethora of healthier options available, like kombucha and sparkling water. But social media has helped push once-niche corners of the internet to the fore, such as Starbucksโ โsecret menuโ, โdirty sodasโ or โMormon sodasโ (soft drinks mixed with syrups, fruit juices, or cream that emerged from the alcohol-free Mormon community in Utah).
Asian bubble tea chains that have proliferated across the country have introduced Western palates to highly customisable drinks that have been embraced by Gen Z, who are more inclined to swap a beer at the pub for a luridly coloured non-alcoholic beverage that can cost upwards of $10.
โYour Maccas, KFCs, Hungry Jackโs โ what theyโre trying to do is actually get people to shop or talk about a specific product,โ says grocery consultant Mark Roestenburg.
Collaborations with the likes of Pistachio Papi, which rode the Dubai chocolate wave on social media and has already collaborated with Gelatissimo, Krispy Kreme, Yo-Chi and Bakerโs Delight, get people talking and posting online, he added, and can be the difference between a customer visiting and not.
Drinks are playing an increasingly bigger role on this front: at least seven in 10 meals ordered in the hospitality industry include a drink, and nearly 10 per cent of customers only ordered a beverage, according to data from market research firm Circana. Japanese green tea powder matcha has become a regular fixture on the menus of Australian cafes, as have cold brews with cold foam.
Roestenburg compared it to the pulling power of the McDonaldโs Monopoly campaign, which offers consumers a chance to win prizes like a yearโs worth of mortgage payments or three free cars if they purchase certain items.
โIโll drive past Hungry Jackโs and go to McDonaldโs because theyโre running Monopoly at the moment. And here itโs the same thing: I will genuinely drive past McDonaldโs to go to Hungry Jackโs because Iโve heard about the Pistachio Papi Storm, and Iโll get that with my Whopper,โ he says.
The most popular drinks of the new McDonaldโs beverage range are the Red Bull Dragonberry Energiser, a green and purple concoction with freeze-dried dragon fruit, and the Sprite Berry Blast, which has the flavour of โblue raspberryโ topped with cold foam.
โThis idea of โtry something newโ has become increasingly high up in the priority list of whatโs really driving consumption,โ says McDonaldโs chief marketing officer Annabel Fribence. โCustomers are increasingly looking for flavour, adventure and also theatre.โ
Fast-food giants are no longer waiting until flavours become mainstream, says Fribence; marketing strategies have evolved to wield the power of influencers who spread the word seemingly organically to their highly engaged followers.
โInfluencers, I think, are driving increased trust for trial, and so weโre seeing a lot more exploration across the range than we traditionally would see โฆ consumers say, โyou know what, I am going to give it a goโ,โ she says. Dragon fruit doesnโt fall within mainstream taste palates of lemon, orange, strawberry, or chocolate. โBut it is our most popular drink.โ
Other flavours might be designed to be gimmicky on purpose. KFC, on top of its own flavoured sparkling lemonades, spiders and thickshakes, has unveiled its new โPicklecoreโ range to some controversy. It includes a Pepsi served with a side of pickle brine and fresh pickles ($5.50).
โItโs actually surprisingly good,โ says Roestenburg.
โFrom a marketing perspective โฆ youโre not doing that sort of stuff to sell a great tasting product necessarily, youโre doing something to have that talkability,โ he says. โThere are people that absolutely love pickles and are going to buy it for that, but then there are other people that are going to buy it to try it and go, โthatโs really differentโ.โ
Ultimately, these products make money: the margins on these drinks are higher, says retail consultant Trent Rigby (who, incidentally, found the Pickle Pepsi โfoulโ).
โA flavoured, limited-time soft drink costs a chain very little extra to produce, but can be priced at a premium versus a standard Coke or Pepsi,โ he says.
Customers who order a normal Coke or lemonade ($4.75) through the McDonaldโs app or kiosk are given the option to order the drink with less ice, but this option isnโt available when ordering a Sprite Berry Blast (about $6), Dragonberry Energiser (about $8), or any of the other cold drinks from the new range.
โThat gap is hugely attractive for fast food operators already under margin pressure, and itโs low-risk because these are usually short-run limited-time offers rather than permanent range changes. So retailers keep churning them out, gimmick or not.โ
Across the board, traditionally unhealthy foods in our supermarket aisles are in long-term decline, the grocery industry consultant says. Total revenue growth of Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), Coca-Colaโs Australian business, grew just 0.4 per cent to $6.4 billion in 2025.
McDonaldโs isnโt seeing the uptake of their brightly coloured drinks denting demand for traditional soft drinks. โItโs not cannibalising [those sales],โ says Fribence.
But Coca-Colaโs market share may not be as vast as it once was. Roestenburg says: โCoke as a business will be fine because they will absorb the innovative brands. Coke as a product? Fast-forward 10 years, does it have the same level of dominance? Maybe not.โ
Cokeโs position as the top soft drink doesnโt seem in dispute for now. Earlier this month, pizza chain Dominoโs made a change that largely flew under the radar: it switched from Pepsi to Coke.
โCoke is the dominant brand by far in the market,โ says fast-food tzar Jack Cowin, who is executive chairman at Dominoโs and owns Hungry Jackโs. Itโs too early to tell if the change has made a difference to sales, he says, but heโs confident it will.
But Cowin, whose competitors are doing much more than offering a standard Coke these days, knows the power of a menu update.
โNew is a magic word in the food business,โ says the 84-year-old. โ[Customers] like the novelty aspect of having something different than just the standard Coke or Fanta, or whatever.โ
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Jessica Yun is a business reporter covering retail and food for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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