The sun is out, the sky is clear. We’re leaving jackets in the closet, and our sleeves are getting shorter. It’s iced coffee season babe! Yes, I just “babe’d” you. Sorry. Don’t screenshot me.
Anyway, iced coffee — it’s delicious, cheap, and for a reason no one can explain, it tastes even better before work. We all have that coworker who rolls in 15-20 minutes late with an iced coffee in hand, you might be that person, and if you are, you know that the move is completely justified.
Whether you’re a Starbucks or Dunkin’ person, there is great iced coffee to be had just about anywhere a drive-thru can be found, hell, even McDonald’s could hold its own in a blind taste test of iced coffees. No judgment on which drive-thru you like to frequent, but if you’ve ever found yourself crawling through an around-the-block line minutes before your shift starts, you might’ve wondered, “Is there another option out there that is just as good if not better than my fav?”
To help expand your options, we’re naming the best iced coffee in all of fast food and ranking them from good to great. For this ranking, we’ve defaulted to vanilla iced coffee. Why vanilla? Because it’s the one flavor that every brand has in common, so while it isn’t always my preference, this was the simplest way to keep the criteria consistent. Let’s dive in.
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Every time that I’ve tried the BK Café Vanilla Iced Coffee, it’s been incredibly bitter and acidic. That leads me to believe the brand is over-roasting the beans. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough vanilla flavoring in the world to cover that up.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying this drink isn’t sweet, it is. But while a lot of fast food iced coffees are designed to indulge your sweet tooth in the best way, there is a stomach-turning quality with this one that I can’t get behind.
The Bottom Line:
Like a lot of Burger King’s menu, the BK Café needs a massive revamp.
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Taco Bell’s Iced Cinnabon Delight gets to be on our list on a technicality. Yes, this is “Cinnabon flavored” (sort of), but it’s also sweetened with vanilla creamer. So technically, it’s a vanilla iced coffee. Unfortunately, twisting ourselves into a pretzel to include this on our list wasn’t even worth it at the end of the day.
I wanted this to be good, I like Taco Bell and I love Cinnabon, but the coffee base is straight-up awful. It’s sour, highly acidic, and has an off-putting aftertaste that stains the tongue. The drink is sweet, but there is nothing really resembling Cinnabon in its flavor profile. I definitely taste the vanilla though, so the inclusion on this list is justified.
The Bottom Line:
Absolutely no redeeming qualities here.
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
On paper, the Frosty-ccino sounds interesting. It’s cold-brewed coffee sweetened with vanilla and creamer made from the famous Frosty base. Conceptually, I love it. In execution? It misses the mark. The coffee here is incredibly watered down, it tastes more like dirty water than a proper brew. Only on the aftertaste do you get any coffee flavor, and what is there is unwelcomingly bitter.
With 28 grams of sugar, I was expecting more of a vanilla prominence in the flavor profile but unfortunately, this one fails to deliver.
The Bottom Line:
Conceptually it’s a winner, but you’re better off just getting a Frosty. It’s not like you’re going to taste much of the coffee anyway.
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
I’m a bit lukewarm on this one. On the one hand, I like the mix of cream and vanilla that gives this drink its sweetness. It’s delicate, slightly floral, and pleasing to the tastebuds. But the coffee itself tastes a bit burnt and over-roasted.
The coffee has a blunt taste to it with a lingering sour aftertaste that stains the breath.
The Bottom Line:
Jack in the Box is close to a decent iced coffee here, but they’ll have to up the quality of their coffee if they want to rank any higher than this.
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Lately, Sonic has been placing pretty highly in our food rankings, so if you’ve written this chain off, you might want to give it a fair shot. This coffee is smooth with a delicate and creamy sweetness that finishes with a soothing earthy-bitter bite.
The coffee is very good with a sort of mocha-quality and subtle notes of cherry hovering over a sweet roasted flavor. If anything, the only thing holding this coffee back is the artificial French vanilla flavoring.
The Bottom Line:
The coffee is good, so skip the vanilla and just go for the base flavor with some sweet cream.
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Wow is this stuff sweet! The French Vanilla Swirl has this delicious, buttery, homemade cookie vibe that is decadent and indulgent in the best way. Unfortunately, what you don’t taste is the coffee itself. The roasted, nutty, and bitter notes of coffee are impossible to decipher under the punishing sweetness.
Sometimes, that’s the vibe you’re looking for, but we’re going to have to rank this one lower because of its lack of balance.
The Bottom Line:
If what you’re really after is sugar, this one delivers. It’s so sweet you can’t even taste the coffee.
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
By now I’m going to assume it’s common knowledge that McDonald’s iced coffee, and everything else on the McCafe menu, is pretty good. But I think there is something else at play here. The expectation is so low on McDonald’s coffee, that people tend to overrate the stuff. Yes it’s good, but better than Starbucks? Not a chance.
The coffee is smooth and refreshing with a nutty roasted quality while the vanilla is a bit flat and one-dimensional. It’s sweet, sweeter than it needs to be and while I think it’s pretty good overall, it lacks dimension and nuance.
The Bottom Line:
McDonald’s Iced French Vanilla Coffee will exceed expectations — but don’t mistake that thinking this is better than it is. It’s merely a pretty good iced coffee.
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Starbucks probably can’t compete with your local independent coffee shop but compared to the competition in the fast food space this stuff tastes straight-up elevated. Over a soft and smooth coffee base with some bitter dark chocolate notes and rich cherry, sits a syrupy sweet vanilla that manages to actually capture some of the floral notes of a vanilla bean.
It’s not mind-blowingly delicious, and the aftertaste is a bit too sour for my liking, but it has an emphasis on the coffee that a lot of the other drinks on this list lack.
The Bottom Line:
Very good, but just shy of great.
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Believe me when I say people are sleeping on Panera’s coffee. Using a cold brew base, the drink has a great toasty depth to it with subtle notes of sweet cherry. The vanilla syrup is sweet, but not to the point of tasting like candy, instead, it’s natural, floral, and deep.
One big change with this drink compared to others on this list is the use of half and half in place of skim milk. It gives the drink a creamier body.
The Bottom Line:
Rich and complex with a coffee prominence that is a pleasure to taste.
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Chick-fil-A’s greatest secret weapon is its drinks menu. Soda aside, there isn’t a single drink, be it iced tea, lemonade, or the various seasonal juices on the Chick-fil-A menu, that hasn’t eclipsed everything else in the fast food universe. And that extends to the brand’s iced coffee as well.
The coffee is freshly brewed, you can taste it. The coffee has a rich and light butterscotch flavor with a smooth toasted body that is peppered with citrus top notes. All of that flavor, before the vanilla!
The vanilla syrup is sweet but most importantly, it complements the base coffee flavor, giving the drink a wonderful finish that erases any trace of bitterness.
The Bottom Line:
Rich, complex, sweet, and creamy, it’s everything a great iced coffee should be.
