The Lowdown: Starbucks’ olive oil coffee
Olive oil coffee? It’s not 1 April yet
Had the launch come a few weeks later people will no doubt have thought it was a leg pull, but we’re telling you, this is legit.
OK. What’s the skinny?
Called oleato, it has just been launched in Milan. The olive oil-spiked coffee range includes an iced shaken espresso, an espresso martini and an olive oil latte steamed with oat milk. In case you were wondering, the name is a play on words between the Italian terms oliva (olive) and oliato (meaning oiled and smooth).
Whose crazy idea was this?
Apparently, it came from the noggin of the big man himself, Howard Shultz, during a trip to Sicily, where he adopted locals’ daily ritual of taking a spoonful of extra virgin olive oil with his morning coffee, before deciding to experiment by mixing the two together. Now in his third stint as CEO and tasked with reenergising the brand, oil-slicked coffee is his answer.
It’s so crazy it could almost work...
Shultz has form in popularising espresso-based beverages around the world - although the Milanese didn’t need his help with their caffeine cravings - so you’d be premature to write oleato off just yet. Let’s face it, is an olive oil espresso crazier than a pumpkin spiced latte or unicorn Frappuccino (or a tiramisu or American cherry pie Frappuccino for that matter). In many ways it seems a saner option.
Fat in coffee. Haven’t we been here before?
Well remembered. Oleato does sound a similar, if not more sophisticated, version of Bulletproof coffee, AKA butter coffee. Invented in 2011 by another American, this time the creator of the Bulletproof Diet Dave Asprey, Bulletproof coffee saw people spooning butter into their morning cup of joe to better equip them in facing the day ahead.
I’m yet to be convinced, as I suspect others are too
Shultz describes the oleato experience as “unexpected, velvety, buttery flavour that enhanced the coffee and lingers beautifully on the palate” but others are less enamoured by the NPD. Speaking to The Guardian, Italian Maria Franceschi said “oil and coffee are different tastes” that could not possibly be paired together. Over here, Chris Ammerman, co-founder of Caravan Restaurants and Coffee Roasters, experimented by pouring a double shot of El Fenix Gesha from Colombia and added some Oatly almond milk followed by some Filippo Berio Extra Virgin Olive Oil. The result? “The olive oil typically added fat to the drink increasing the mouthfeel, but it masked all the fruit flavours,” he told our esteemed sister publication MCA. “I have to confess I prefer drinking black coffee, so it’s definitely not for me.”
So, it’s not such a slick move after all...
Don’t be too hasty. MCA also spoke with Jeffrey Young, CEO of coffee insight specialist Allegra, who commended Shultz’ chutzpah for trialling it in Italy first and said the innovation demonstrated how Starbucks is looking to stay fresh. “While consumers are creatures of habit, they form new habits when good products come along, e.g flat whites, iced beverages, oat and non-dairy alternatives, seasonal beverages and cold brew in the US,” he said.
But do we even need another style of coffee?
The consensus is that coffee drinkers like to experiment, hence the third, fourth, and fifth waves in sector. Operators have been clamouring to replicate the dark art of the hugely successful flat white, with M&S the latest to have a go. In January it introduced Magic Coffee on its menus, so-called because of ‘magic’ ratio of coffee to milk. Said to be the new choice of chin-stroking Melbourne baristas, while M&S’ flat white contains six ounces of milk and two ounces of espresso, Magic Coffee is made from five ounces of milk and one ounce of ristretto - a more highly concentrated espresso that use half as much water. “Latte drinkers like it because it is a smaller latte, flat white drinkers like it because it is still bold and, in testings, even non-coffee drinkers liked it,” Tom Rawlinson, the head of coffee development at Marks & Spencer cafés told The Times.
Let the coffee wars commence
Let’s not forget rival Pret in all this. The company has just announced that it is revamping its iced drinks range, in what it has described as its ‘biggest drinks innovation in over five years’. There’s no clue as to what this might be, but the bar has been set high in recent months.
Iced CBD coffee with a shot of balsamic?
Steady. For now, let’s wait and see what oleato is all about. Starbucks has comparatively few sites in Italy due to Italian people having very particular tastes in coffee, so it will be interesting to see whether it can win them over. Following that attempt, the range will then be available in the US in the spring and in the UK later this year.
