Starbucks will launch its Oleato brand in the United States on Thursday, following the launch of olive oil-infused coffee in Italy.
The drinks will be available first at the upscale Reserve Roasteries and select Reserve cafés in New York, Chicago, and Seattle, as well as the original Starbucks site at Pike Place Market. The drinks will thereafter be available for purchase on Monday at 550 locations throughout Seattle and Los Angeles.
at February, the line was introduced at approximately two dozen Italian cafes. Former CEO Howard Schultz, who resigned on Monday, traveled to Italy this summer and observed Sicilians sipping olive oil as a regular routine. He, too, began drinking olive oil with his everyday coffee and concluded that Starbucks should experiment with combining the two.
According to Starbucks, oleeato means “with oil” in Italian.
The first Oleato drinks incorporate olive oil with Starbucks’ Caffé Latte, Iced Shaken Espresso, and cold foam. The Partanna olive oil is infused in vanilla sweet cream froth and steamed with oat milk for the latte, shaken in the iced espresso drink, and infused in oat milk for the latte.
According to one study, following a Mediterranean diet is connected with good aging.
Starbucks hasn’t revealed how popular the brand is in Italy, but early reviews in the US press were mostly unfavorable. The olive oil “felt like too much,” according to CNN Business, and the drink “tasted like a large spoonful of olive oil in coffee,” according to the New Yorker.
In St. Louis, Panera Bread is putting Amazon’s palm-scanning technology to the test.
Later this year, the coffee giant wants to deliver the Oleato drinks to Japan, the Middle East, and the United Kingdom.
