Chef Douglas Rodriguez tapped at McDonald’s for coffee introduction.

Renowned Chef Douglas Rodríguez was tapped by the McDonald’s Restaurants of the New York/ New Jersey/Connecticut tri-state area to appear on various Spanish radio programs in the New York vicinity and brought along McDonald’s Premium Roast Coffee for his hosts. Rodriguez spoke about the impressive position McDonald’s holds in the coffee market, selling nearly 1 out of every 10 cups of brewed coffee purchased outside the home in the U.S. and serving more than 500 million cups of coffee each year – about 1.3 million cups of coffee daily, and divulged information as to the ancestry of the Premium Roast Coffee.

McDonald’s has partnered with Gaviña & Sons custom coffee roasters to develop this formula of 100% Arabica coffee beans. The Gaviña family brings 135 years of expertise in high-quality coffee production and Latino heritage to McDonald’s. Originally from the Basque region of Spain, the Gaviña family traveled to the rich coffee-bearing soil of the southern Cuban mountains. Gaviña has been a U.S. specialty coffee roaster since 1967 and is the largest minority owned coffee roaster nationwide, producing more than 32 million pounds of roasted coffee per year. Gaviña & Sons custom coffee roasters have created the Premium Roast blend exclusively for McDonald’s.

“McDonald’s Premium Roast Coffee is a freshly brewed, 100% Arabica whole-bean roasted coffee with a bold, rich flavor and aroma,” explained Rodríguez. “ Arabica beans are cultivated at high altitudes that yield a high quality gourmet coffee unlike Robusta coffee beans, a lower caliber bean, which are cultivated at a lower elevation and do not yield the aroma and quality that is expected from those who know good coffee.”

Douglas, creator of popular restaurants “Patria,” “Yuca,” “Chicama,” “Pipa,” “OLA,” and “Alma de Cuba” in cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Miami, Arizona and London, brings not only his highly acclaimed culinary palette, but a Latino perspective as well.