McDonald’s giving away re-designed straws in Roseville as part of promotion for shake

McDonald’s, the company that revolutionized fast food and created the Big Mac special sauce, will be handing out a re-invention of the humble straw in limited quantities – a giveaway that is part promotion and part goof.

McDonald’s describes the new straw on Youtube as “truly frivolous, but still actually kind of a break through and pretty cool.”

The company employed a tech team to design the limited edition straw and gave it a high-falutin’ name: “Suction Tube for Reverse Axial Withdrawal (STRAW).” The idea behind the re-engineered straw is to equally mix the mint and chocolate layers of the new Chocolate Shamrock shake.

The company has produced only 2,000 of the silly, yet functional straws. On a first-come, first-served basis, 20 of the straws will be given to customers who purchase Chocolate Shamrock shakes 6 p.m. Friday at the McDonald’s, 8660 Sierra College Blvd. in Roseville.

McDonald’s employed the engineering firms JACE.design of San Francisco and NK Labs of Cambridge, Mass., to develop the STRAW. The J shaped straw has three holes: one for the mint, another for the chocolate -- and one at the bottom of the curve for sucking up the very last of the shake.

In a whimsical video produced by McDonald’s posted on YouTube, a serious-sounding faux-British actor explains the reasoning behind the STRAW:

“We soon realized that a conventional mono-cylindrical straw simply would not provide the ideal flavor ratio. Thus, a spectacularly unnecessary product was born.”

This story was originally published February 24, 2017 at 7:54 AM with the headline "McDonald’s giving away re-designed straws in Roseville as part of promotion for shake."