Leading coffee chain Starbucks has expanded its extra virgin olive oil-infused coffee line to all its stores in the USA.
Alongside the national rollout of Oleato drinks in the USA, Starbucks had introduced the new Oleato Golden Foam, Iced Shaken Espresso with Toffeenut and Oleato Caffè Latte with Oatmilk, the company said on 29 January.
The inspiration for the range followed a trip to Sicily in 2022 by Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz.
While there Schultz took a spoonful of Partanna extra virgin olive oil as part of his daily ritual in addition to his morning coffee after being introduced to the Mediterranean custom of taking a spoonful of olive oil each day. He then had the idea of combining the two ingredients.
“In both hot and cold coffee beverages, what it produced was an unexpected, velvety, buttery flavour that enhanced the coffee and lingers beautifully on the palate,” Schultz said on the company’s website.
The company’s Oleato range, which combines arabica coffee infused with Partanna cold-pressed, extra virgin olive oil, was launched in Italy last February.
The original range includes Oleato Latte, Oleato Iced Shaken Espresso and Oleato Golden Foam Cold Brew.
A month after its Italian debut, Starbucks launched the olive oil-infused coffee drinks across 550 locations in Chicago, New York City and Seattle and the line is also available in nine countries in Asia, Europe and North America.
Despite receiving mixed customer reviews, the company had then pushed ahead with the latest US expansion, Olive Oil Times wrote.
