McDonald’s offers free coffee to its customers through mid-January

Tuolumne and Calaveras county coffee lovers are in for a treat — a free one at that — Until Jan. 15, local McDonald’s Restaurant’s will offer a free small cup of coffee to customers, with no purchase of other items necessary.

The fast-food giant announced that now through Jan. 15, participating restaurants will offer a free small Premium Roast Coffee made with 100 percent fire-roasted Arabaca beans to all customers during business hours.

This program is a way for Northern California McDonald’s franchise owners to say “thank you” to their customers and offer a helping hand at the start of the new year, McDonald’s spokesman Clay Merrill said Monday.

“It’s a new year and times are tough. The economy is really hard on a lot of people, and in general first of the year budgets are tight,” Merrill explained. “Local franchise owners agreed to help people out during the start of the new year.”

The free coffee program will last two weeks and will include restaurants from the following counties — Sacramento, Placer, Nevada, Sutter, Yuba, Yolo, El Dorado (not including South Lake Tahoe restaurants), Solano (not including restaurants west of Fairfield), San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Amador, Calaveras, Tuolumne and Colusa.