It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times (blurst, of course, being the sound resonating from your toilet bowl after drinking one of these friggin’ things). That’s right, the Oleato, Starbuck’s olive-oil-in-coffee drink that no one liked and gave everyone the poops, is no more, as the brand will be removing them from the menu early next month.
The Oleato was fraught from the start. As reported by CNN, the drink was famously concocted like so many ill-advised coffee businesses have been in the past: after a trip to Italy. This time, it was then-CEO Howard Schultz, who visited an olive oil farm where the producer “introduced him to the practice of consuming a tablespoon of olive oil each day.” Then, after extensive (read: none) consumer research—and being partial owner of Partanna, the exclusive olive oil brand Starbucks uses—the Oleato was born.
The drink was first debuted in Italy in late 2023 before coming to North America in early 2024, the launch of which CNN described as “bombastic”. “Rather than a flavor or a product, it’s really a platform.” Starbucks former CMO Brady Brewer stated at the time. Schultz claimed it was “one of his most high-profile projects” and once even said that “people are going to add a tablespoon of Partanna extra-virgin olive oil into their drink. I’m sure of it.” [Narrator voice] They did not.
Now, less than a year after their launch in the US and Canada, the Oleato line of drinks at Starbucks are gone. It’s part of new CEO and supercommuter Brian Niccol’s revamping of the brand’s menu, which he called “overly complex.” And while running afoul of the company’s CEO emeritus is the quickest way to get Laxman’ed, a source tells CNN that the decision to remove the drink was made prior to Niccol’s arrival.
And so we must bid adieu, say adios, au revoir, arrivaderci (or oliveoilderci as it were) to the Oleato, a drink no one except Howard Schultz wanted and won’t be missed flushed down the waste water line of history and into the septic tank of memory. Now if we want a coffee drink to make us poop, we’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way. By drinking a lot of espresso. So so much espresso.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
