Starbucks initial Oleato launch will launch three olive oil-infused drinks in stores across Italy.
Source: Starbucks
Starbucks has a new way to customize its coffee: olive oil.
The coffee giant will launch its “Oleato” line in its roughly two dozen Italian locations on Wednesday and plans to bring it to Southern California this spring. The United Kingdom, Japan and the Middle East will follow later this year.
Oleato means “with oil,” according to Starbucks.
The idea was born from a trip that outgoing CEO Howard Schultz took to Italy this summer, where he witnessed Sicilians drinking olive oil as a daily ritual. He, too, began drinking olive oil alongside his daily coffee and decided that Starbucks should try to mix the two together.
Schultz teased the release on the company’s earnings call earlier in February, calling it “alchemy” and a “game-changer.”
Rich, luxurious, golden
The initial Oleato lineup of drinks will infuse olive oil into Starbucks’ Caffé Latte, Iced Shaken Espresso and cold foam. The Partanna olive oil is steamed with oat milk for the latte, shaken in the iced espresso drink and infused in vanilla sweet cream foam to create the “golden” foam that tops cold brews.
A press, or spoonful, of the Partanna olive oil will also be available to order as a way to customize drinks.
“It makes beverages richer,” Starbucks Chief Marketing Officer Brady Brewer told CNBC. “The word that a lot of people used is ‘luxurious.'”
One of the main ways that Starbucks customers choose to customize their coffee is by changing the texture, Brewer said. Cold foam, which the coffee chain launched in 2018, is one of the most-ordered modifiers as consumers shift to drinking more iced beverages.
Cold beverages accounted for more than three-quarters of drink orders in November. Iced espresso drinks, in particular, are Starbucks’ largest category by sales volume and its fastest-growing segment, which is why the company chose to include the Iced Shaken Espresso in the Oleato launch.
Oleato…
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