TIL: McDonald’s Discontinued A Coffee Spoon Because It Became The Cocaine Spoon Of The Midwest

You may or may not be old enough to remember, but before McDonald’s handed out coffee stir paddles, they gave customers miniature stirring spoons. These were small, white plastic utensils — thin, with the word McDonald’s printed on them, featuring the Golden Arches on one end and a tiny spoon on the other.

However, by the late 1970s, rumor had it that customers were using these tiny coffee stirrers for a very different kind of pick-me-up — one that rhymes with “propane,” comes as a white powder, and was often snorted rather than stirred.

Cocaine was quickly gaining popularity at the time and would fully explode in the ’80s. And as always, few things spark innovation quite like the quest for convenience—especially when it comes to vice. In Michigan and Ohio, McDonald’s coffee stirrer found a second life as a makeshift tool for cocaine use, earning it the nickname “McSpoon.”

The trend lasted into the 90s, according to an undercover detective from Columbus, OH, who said people sold McSpoons in double-digit bundles. Of course that didn’t sit well with McDonald’s, which led to their eventual discontinuation. 

McDonald’s responded to the trend by replacing the stirrer with the flat paddle we use today. A statement from Doug Timberlake, a spokesperson for McDonald’s Corp., addressed the incident, saying, “It has been brought to our attention that people are using them illegally and illicitly for purposes for which they are not intended.”