Olive Oil in Your Coffee Cup: Fleeting Fad or Lasting Shift?

The Day Olive Oil Entered the Coffee Cup

In February 2023, Starbucks unveiled its Oleato line at select locations in Milan and parts of Tuscany. The core menu comprised three drinks, including the Oleato Cold Brew and the Oleato Caffè Latte — both built around extra virgin olive oil from Partanna, a Sicilian cooperative. According to official Starbucks communications, each drink contains approximately 2 tablespoons of EVOO.

The reaction was sharply divided. Specialty coffee communities produced withering commentary about oily espresso, while defenders countered that this was a pairing with genuine regional roots. Italian food researchers seized the moment to draw attention to a folk practice still found in Calabria and Sicily: a drop of olive oil stirred into a morning espresso. That small domestic ritual, largely unknown outside southern Italy, suddenly found itself at the center of a global conversation.

The Flavor Logic — Why Olive Oil and Coffee

The functional case for combining EVOO with coffee rests on fat's ability to hold aromatic molecules in place. Volatile aroma compounds in coffee dissolve more readily in fat than in water, which means oil can extend how long those aromas linger. A study published in Food Chemistry in 2021 found that adding oil to a coffee emulsion measurably increased aroma duration. When EVOO meets a fresh shot of espresso, it mingles with the crema layer — and many tasters describe the result as a richer, rounder mouthfeel than the unadulterated drink provides.

Cultivar choice turns out to matter considerably. Baristas and coffee professionals, as reported in several trade publications, have found that assertive, bitter-pungent varieties such as Picual can clash with the roasting notes in espresso, while more delicate, buttery cultivars — Arbequina and Sibarita among them — tend to complement the drink's acidity. Choosing an EVOO that has been minimally filtered after cold-pressing, to preserve its full fruit character, is another approach that practitioners frequently mention.

After Oleato — How Far Did the Trend Travel?

Starbucks expanded the Oleato line to major U.S. cities — Chicago, Seattle, and New York — in March 2023, and reached parts of the U.K. and Middle East by April. According to Mintel's 2023 beverage sector insights, social media mentions of 'olive oil drinks' in the two weeks immediately following the Oleato announcement exceeded the total volume recorded over the preceding six months by a factor of three. Google Trends data showed that global search interest in 'olive oil coffee' hit an all-time high in the third week of February 2023.

Independent specialty cafés moved quickly. New York shops developed their own olive oil latte variations, while some London cafés went further, publishing 'pairing notes' on their menus that matched single-origin EVOOs by provenance with specific coffee varietals — a sensibility borrowed directly from wine culture. The format spread through social media channels in other markets as well, with specialty café operators in various cities trialling it as a seasonal offering.

Fat, Caffeine, and Nutritional Context

A single tablespoon of EVOO contains approximately 14 g of fat, of which around 73% is oleic acid, a monounsaturated fatty acid, according to the USDA Nutrient Database. Some research has reported that polyphenols present in EVOO may be associated with antioxidant activity, but what happens to those compounds when EVOO is mixed into hot coffee — and how bioavailability changes as a result — has not yet been conclusively established. Nutrition professionals broadly agree that it is too early to conclude that olive oil coffee is categorically better for you than coffee alone.

Caloric load also warrants consideration. Published nutrition information from Starbucks indicates that an Oleato latte can contain roughly 250–300 kcal per serving. Some practitioners also note that consuming a fat-rich drink on an empty stomach first thing in the morning may not suit everyone, and that personal tolerance is the appropriate guide.

Fad or Fixture — Where Things Stand

By 2024, the Oleato line remains available in a number of Starbucks markets, but mention volume has settled into a more stable register than the initial surge suggested. According to a first-half 2024 report from food culture analytics platform Tastewise, olive oil beverages fall into a 'spike-and-settle' trend category, with notably higher persistence in specialty café settings than in mainstream chains.

Food columnists have offered two readings of this trajectory. The first holds that olive oil coffee will follow the path of protein coffee and butter coffee — products that never went fully mainstream but found a committed niche audience and stayed there. The second interpretation is more expansive: as sommelier culture matures within specialty coffee, the pairing of provenance-driven, cultivar-specific EVOO with carefully sourced beans may continue developing as its own sensory language, in much the way natural wine did before it became widely understood.

Either way, olive oil coffee now reads as more than a single brand's marketing moment. It has opened a credible space for exploring what EVOO's aromatic and textural potential can contribute to beverages — a question that, for specialty producers and curious baristas alike, remains genuinely open.