CNN
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Starbucks is betting big on coffee infused with olive oil, hoping customers will be enticed by the anomaly and health benefits of extra virgin olive oil.
“It’s one of the biggest launches we’ve had in decades,” Brady Brewer, Starbucks chief marketing officer, told CNN. Former CEO Howard Schultz added in an interview with Poppy Harlow that it “will transform the coffee industry” and “will be a very profitable new addition to the company.”
But what the company may not have factored in: Some customers say it makes them run to the bathroom.
“Half the team tried yesterday and a few ended up…had to go to the bathroom, if you know what I mean,” one barista wrote on Starbucks’ Reddit page. CNN has reached out to the Redditor for comment.
It could be the shine of the oil. Or it could be the aftertaste. Social media was quick to condemn the booze — and the after-effects.
“That starbs oleato drink makes my stomach talk,” said one user tweeted.
People with a sensitive stomach are already tired.
“IBD patient here. I wouldn’t touch these drinks with a ten-foot pole,” one Redditor said.
The new platform, Oleato, was rolled out in Italy in February. Each drink — an oat milk latte, an oat milk iced espresso, and a gold foam cold brew — is made with a spoonful of oil and adds 120 calories to a drink. Select Starbucks stores in Seattle and Los Angeles and Reserves in Chicago, Seattle and New York now serve the platform of beverages.
CNN has contacted Starbucks for comment.
Olive oil is a staple of Mediterranean culture and some drink bits of olive oil daily in the region.
But the Starbucks drink has a potentially fragile combination: caffeine, which is a stimulant, and olive oil, which is a relaxant.
A 16-ounce drink contains a whopping 34 grams of fat, which is more than what many find in a meal, said registered dietitian nutritionist Erin Palinski-Wade. And mineral oils like olive oil are usually used to treat constipation because it softens the stool, making it easier to go to the bathroom.
“If you combine a high fat content in a meal or drink with coffee, which already stimulates the gut,” said Palinski-Wade, “that combination can cause cramps. It can cause increased mobility in the colon and therefore that laxative having effect.
Some customers said the speed with which they had to use the toilet after getting the drink took them by surprise. But high-fat meals take longer to digest than liquid olive oil, which will reach digestion faster, Palinski-Wade said. And most people in the US drink coffee on the go and don’t combine the drink with carbs and fiber to negate the impact.
The benefits of olive oil are widely disseminated, linked to lowering heart disease risk and lowering blood pressure (although the positive health outcomes may be because the Mediterranean diet replaces unhealthy fats like butter with olive oil, The New York Times reported). York Times.)
“(The drink) is not going to make someone physically ill from a negative health impact standpoint,” Palinski-Wade said. “But more of that uncomfortable feeling of having to go to the bathroom or possibly having a cramp.”
In the Mediterranean, taking a spoonful of olive oil a day is part of the daily routine. Former CEO Howard Schultz picked up this habit himself from olive oil producer Tommaso Asaro while in Sicily, Italy.
“When we got together and started doing this ritual, I said to [Asaro], I know you think I’m going crazy, but have you ever thought of infusing a tablespoon of olive oil with Starbucks coffee? Schultz told CNN’s Poppy Harlow. “He thought it was a little strange.” Asaro is the president of United Olive Oil, where Starbucks sources its olive oil.