Starbucks' Strangest Product Now Available Everywhere
Oleato, Starbucks' line of olive-oil-infused coffee, will finally be available at all U.S. locations.
Starbucks is going all in on its olive-oil-infused menu beverages. After a few months of a limited rollout in select cities, the company announced Monday that its entire Oleato menu will now be available for purchase at all of its U.S. and Canada locations.
Along with the full nationwide rollout of these drinks, Starbucks is also adding two new Oleato beverages to the lineup: the Oleato Golden Foam Iced Shaken Espresso with Toffeenut and Oleato Caffè Latte with Oatmilk. (The beverage names at Starbucks seem to get longer every day.)
The former drink contains the brand's blonde espresso, plus "notes of warm toffeenut and creamy oatmilk," and is topped with Oleato Golden Foam. The cold foam is a vanilla sweet cream, infused with Partanna extra virgin olive oil. The latter drink also contains Starbucks Blonde Espresso Roast combined with oatmilk and is available in both hot and iced formats.
On top of the new drinks, Starbucks also notes customers can customize any cold coffee on the menu with the Oleato Golden Foam. Four customizations already exist in the Starbucks app: the Iced Chai Tea Latte, Iced Matcha Tea Latte, Dragon Drink Refresher, and Paradise Drink Refresher can all be topped with Oleato Golden Foam.
Starbucks first introduced its Oleato beverages in Italy back in February 2023. It's a distinctly Italian-inspired menu: Partanna olive oil is a cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil produced in Partanna, Sicily.
The drinks then came to the U.S. market in March 2023, but were only made available in Los Angeles and Seattle. Eventually the rollout was expanded to select locations in Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Texas, and Vermont, and major cities including Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, and Miami. So, how has Oleato been performing for Starbucks?
"While Starbucks does not share specific sales data, the Oleato beverages appeal to a variety of customer beverage preferences – from iced espresso and cold coffee, to plant-based beverages,"a representative for Starbucks told The Takeout via email back in June 2023.
Although these beverages have received mixed reviews, it seems Starbucks is confident the whole country is ready to marry their coffee orders with EVOO.