McDonald’s and Taco Bell Are Battling in the Afternoon Drink War

McDonald’s and Taco Bell are duking it out over who gets to wake you up in the afternoon. McDonald’s teamed up with Red Bull this month to launch the Dragonberry Energizer. A few days later, Taco Bell punched back with three new energy refreshers of its own, according to Restaurant Business.

Both chains have been tackling the beverage boom for years, as a wave of upstart chains muscles in on the category too.

McDonald’s says beverages are already paying off big. The amount a typical customer spends per visit is up roughly 50%, and the drinks are pulling in new customers who weren’t stopping by before. Taco Bell wants beverages to hit $5 billion in sales on their own, enough to rival the entire systemwide sales of chains like Wingstop or Pizza Hut.

However, neither is really the other’s biggest threat. Chains like 7 Brew and Dutch Bros are the ones actually sipping away their market share, with 7 Brew alone adding nearly 300 new locations last year while boosting sales per store by a third. McDonald’s has the bigger army, over 13,700 restaurants to Taco Bell’s 7,700-plus, but Taco Bell has Baja Blast, the neon-blue drink with a cult following since 2004.