Christopher Buchanan, WXIA 7:49 PM. EST February 18, 2017

(Photo: Courtesy of McDonald's)

ATLANTA -- Drinking a milkshake can sometimes be an arduous task with a straw - especially when trying to get an even mix of two flavors. So if you're a multi-national fast food giant, what do you do to solve such an annoyance?

You bring on some of the most brilliant minds in tech and aerospace science to end the problem once and for all - or at least of a limited time.

McDonald's has introduced a reinvented straw ahead of the introduction of the Chocolate Shamrock Shake - a variant on their seasonal favorite.

The straw is actually designed as a joint venture between McDonald's and engineering firms NK Labs and JACE to help milkshake drinkers get an even mix of chocolate and mint.

It was a puzzling assignment but one with an ambitious goal, said Seth Newburg, principal engineer and managing partner at NK Labs. From a physics perspective, its actually quite difficult to deliver a proportional amount of both chocolate and mint flavors with each sip. But thats exactly what we did. Its a marvel of fluid dynamics. Thanks Fibonacci sequence.

Sound like overkill? To some extent, McDonald's appears to agree calling the limited-edition straw "utterly frivolous" in their own press release.

But McDonald's says the invention is also a hallmark of its customer focus.

"We're always listening to what our customers want and reinventing our menu in response," said Darci Forrest, senior director of menu innovation at McDonald's. "And though it might sound silly to some, putting our guests first sometimes means re-thinking even the humble straw."

Symbolic gesture or not, the "J" shaped straw is actually quite real. But the company is only releasing 2,000 - a limited production strategy recently implemented with the bottling of the company's Big Mac sauce.

The company released limited quantities of the sauce, as well, to promote its new Big Mac sizes - and the public definitely took the bait with some immediately putting it on eBay for prices ranging from $50 to $100,000.

Just like the sauce, the straw announcement precedes the introduction of four new seasonal McCafe drinks along with the famed Shamrock Shake. The limited production straw will also be limited release. So fans will have to head here to find out when and where they will pop up.

At this point, it looks like one Atlanta location will receive the item.

As for sales of the drink to which it will be paired, McDonald's vows to donate 25 cents from each Shamrock Chocolate beverage to Ronald McDonald House between March 11 and 17.

( 2017 WXIA)

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