Oleat-no: A review of Starbucks’s new Oleato line

Olive oil and coffee: a match that was in fact not made in heaven, but rather at your local Starbucks.

Starbucks launched a new “Oleato” line nationwide on January 30. It pairs with classic drinks like a cafe latte but now with a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil mixed into cold foam atop them. This idea came from their interim CEO, Howard Schultz, who learned about the oil’s health benefits while in Sicily and started having a tablespoon of olive oil a day. 

The line has six drinks in total and I tried out four of them to see if the health benefits were really worth adding oil into my drinks.

I started with the one I was most skeptical about — Dragon Drink with the olive oil cold foam, or “Golden Foam” as Starbucks calls it.

It looked like a classic Dragon Drink — a milky purple color with dried fruit — just with cold foam topping in. The taste on the other hand was nothing like the original dragon fruit and coconut milk filled drink.

It’s utterly repulsing.

I took a sip and the only thing I could taste was a piece of bread soaked in olive oil — I couldn’t even make it through the thick layer of cold foam without gagging so I had to pour some out to see if the base drink tasted the same. The actual Dragon Drink tasted like itself but left an oil coating on my tongue after every sip.

No amount of health benefits could make me choke this down.

Next, I tried the Iced Shaken Espresso with Golden Foam.

This was notably better than the previous drink. While it still left a strange oil lingering in my mouth, the oil mixed a lot better with the espresso flavor than the fruity taste from before. I could still obviously tell I’m drinking olive oil but the sharp espresso balanced it out.

It could never beat out my regular coffee, but I’d be willing to try this again.

After this, I had higher hopes for the Chai Latte with Golden Foam — all of which were quickly let down.

The Chai took me right back to biting into an oil-drenched piece of bread. Unlike the Dragon Drink though, when I poured out most of the golden foam some of the oil taste still remained but seemed pleasant in this drink. The mix of the spices in the chai complemented the olive oil taste very well —but still left the pungent oil taste which offset the chai flavor.

If the cold foam was switched out for a simple splash of oil in the drink I would order it again, but I’d never buy it again as it is right now again.

Lastly, I tried the only hot drink with oil: a Caffé Latte with oat milk that was steamed with olive oil.

This is the only drink I’d get again. Since the olive oil was mixed throughout the drink instead of concentrated on the top it had less of a harsh flavor. The smoothness of the olive helped the espresso also have a smoother texture. The oil helped balance out the espresso strong as well, making the taste seem less bitter.

The oil overall gave the drink a more enjoyable experience and I would quickly choose this version over the original. 

While some of the drinks didn’t turn out as horrendous as they sounded, I wouldn’t waste my money to try most of them again — besides the hot latte, the only drink that I didn’t have to frown at after sipping.