McLattes Coming to NWA

Hold on to your organic cardboard cups, Starbucks, because McDonald’s is attempting to encroach even further on your coffee turf.

Encouraged by beating Starbucks on taste and price in brewed coffee rankings issued by Consumer Reports last March, McDonald’s has begun outfitting stores with espresso machines.

Now available in just 6 percent of McDonald’s U.S. stores (around 800), the Northwest Arkansas franchises owned by the Matthews family will be steaming it up soon with cappuccinos and lattes on the menu.

Owner Bill Matthews tells us he will be installing the machines in all 26 of the family’s free-standing locations in Northwest Arkansas and the first could come online within a few weeks at their north Bentonville location that opened last year.

Seattle and Spokane, Wash., are the latest markets to be fitted with espresso machines, joining Kansas City, Bakersfield, Calif., Raleigh, N.C. and all of Michigan.

Matthews said each espresso machine costs $15,000 and his company is investing millions into the effort. McDonald’s has said its push into specialty coffees could boost its sales by $1 billion per year.