When Starbucks (SBUX) first decided to start putting olive oil in some of its coffee drinks, it chose to first go to the Italians.
The coffee giant launched its "Oleato" line at the Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Milan in February 2023 and was immediately hit with a wave of both curiosity and criticism from a country with a centuries-old coffee culture and strict customs on how coffee should and shouldn't be consumed.
DON'T MISS: This Is What It's Like To Drink Olive Oil In Your Starbucks Coffee
The practice of putting a drop of olive oil in one's morning coffee started out on the Italian island of Sicily but was largely unheard-of everywhere else and widely seen as a Starbucks gimmick by Italian reviewers — "Oleato" stands for "oiled" in Italian.
Veronika Bondarenko
You'll Soon Be Able to Get Olive-Oil Infused Coffee in These Cities
But curiosity ultimately won out and the line including an olive-oil infused latte, cold brew, cortado and espresso martini soon came to Roastery Reserve locations in New York, Chicago and Seattle as well as some regular Starbucks stores across Seattle and Los Angeles.
With each arrival in a new city, the Oleato line brought with it a string of opinions and media coverage. Some reviewers said they "seriously regretted" even trying it or that olive oil belongs "in salad rather than coffee." Most, however, liked it as a novelty but not as something they would drink regularly.
"The rich, nutty flavor of olive comes through immediately while the slight peppery tinge manages to cut through that richness that leaves your lips feeling as though you've just put on balm," I wrote when testing the Oleato Golden Foam Cold Brew in March 2023. "Things start to get weird not long after those first few sips."
Starbucks on June 6 announced that it will be expanding the Oleato line further to stores in Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas and Miami as well as smaller cities in states like Alaska, Arkansas and Vermont.
While the olive oil drinks will not be available everywhere, the breadth and cross-country nature of the states makes this more or less of a nationwide rollout. Starbucks also added a new oat milk toffee nut iced shaken espresso to the Oleato line.
Oleato Line Is Weird But a Genius Business Move
Throughout the last five months, Starbucks has been drumming up excitement for Oleato products with a heavy marketing campaign. At the New York Reserve location, customers who walked in could try pieces of Italian bread with the Partanna olive oil used in the drinks and that participating Starbucks stores now also sell on its own.
During the last Starbucks earnings call in May, new CEO Laxman Narasimhan called the Oleato line "one of the top five product launches in the last five years in terms of brand awareness and excitement."
Starbucks anticipates strong sales even as the olive oil coffee moves on from something new and highly-anticipated to one of the many things that customers can pick off the Starbucks menu but some critics think that the gimmick factor will only take it so far.
“Did we need coffee with extra virgin olive oil and syrups?” a prominent Italian food magazine editor wrote when the drink first appeared in Italy. "Maybe yes, maybe no.
