You have most likely seen it on social media: influencers putting olive oil on seemingly everything, from avocado toast to ice cream.
Starbucks caught onto this and they released a lineup called Oleato. Some of their signature coffees, teas and refreshers come with a twist-either olive oil being put directly into the drink or topping the drink with their Oleato Golden Foam, their sweet cream cold foam with a pump or two of olive oil.
I gave two of these drinks a try: one coffee-based and one refresher-based.
For the coffee, I tried their Oleato Shaken Espresso. In this drink, espresso meets a toffee nut syrup mixed with oat milk, and is topped off with the Oleato Golden Foam. With the price point for a venti being about eight dollars, it was quite the splurge compared to my normal order. However, when I tried the drink for the first time I was amazed by how much depth the coffee had because of the olive oil. The sweet cream on top mixed with the oil helped to even out the bitterness of the coffee without adding a ton of syrup, which I enjoyed. As I finished up the drink, it almost tasted like tiramisu, with the subtleness of the espresso and cream.
For the refresher, I tried the Dragon Drink with the Oleato Golden Foam. After the first sip, I was stunned how well the flavors paired up. While ordering this for the first time, I was unsure how well flavors of mango, dragonfruit and coconut would pair with cream and olive oil, but I was proven wrong instantly. The olive oil made the mango taste stick out to me even more, and made the drink seem to have a more unified flavor. The price point for this beverage was about the same as the shaken espresso, with only a small difference in cents.
Ultimately, both of these drinks opened my eyes to the olive oil trend. Before, I thought that it was quite odd to put olive oil in drinks and I even thought that a fruit flavored drink with olive oil would be outright disgusting. However, after trying these two drinks my mind is completely changed.