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FOOD AND DRINK

‘Unexpected flavour’: Starbucks launches olive oil coffee in Italy

US coffee giant Starbucks launched a new range of coffees laced with olive oil this week in its latest bid to appeal to the Italian market, but the idea has had a mixed reception.

Published: 22 February 2023 17:19 CET
‘Unexpected flavour’: Starbucks launches olive oil coffee in Italy
Italy's first Starbucks opened in central Milan in 2018 with an ambitious plan to conquer the spiritual home of espresso. But will olive oil coffee appeal to the Italian market? (Photo by Miguel MEDINA / AFP)

You may think Starbucks setting up shop in Italy was a bold enough move, but the US-based chain went a step further this week by launching a new product which combines two Italian culinary staples: coffee and olive oil.

The multinational coffee giant began serving its ‘Oleato’ range of olive oil-infused coffee drinks at its Italian stores on Wednesday, including a Caffè Latte with olive oil and the Iced Shaken Espresso, which it described as a “coffee-forward beverage” containing hazelnut flavouring, oat milk and olive oil.

READ ALSO: Where, when and how to drink coffee like an Italian

According to a Starbucks press release, chief executive Howard Schultz put olive oil in his morning coffee while on holiday in Sicily and was “absolutely stunned” at the “delicious and unexpected alchemy”.

He said he got the idea after seeing Sicilians taking a spoon of locally-produced extra virgin olive oil every morning.

Mixing the oil into his coffee produced “an unexpected, velvety, buttery flavour that enhanced the coffee and lingers beautifully on the palate,” he said.

But in a country which takes its olive oil and coffee seriously, the concept has unsurprisingly had a mixed reception.

Many Italian social media users were immediately sceptical, with some on Twitter calling the idea “disgusting” or an “atrocity”.

Several Italian commenters pointed out that both coffee and olive oil have well-known laxative properties. “The combined effect could be disastrous,” said one.

Others simply said that they wouldn’t visit Starbucks anyway because of the cost.

READ ALSO: ‘Declaration of war’: Outrage in Italy over New York Times tomato carbonara

The new range will use oil from a Sicilian olive variety named Castelvetrano, which Starbucks said was sweet and reminiscent of some of its syrup options.

Starbucks baristas mix the oil with oat milk before pouring the blend into a shot (or two) of espresso coffee to create a flavour described by Starbucks menu developers as “caramel-like.”

The olive oil coffee was debuted in Italy and will be rolled out in southern California and elsewhere in the US later this year, the company said.

Starbucks has been in Italy since 2018, when it said it was entering the Italian market with “humility and respect”.

The chain now has 25 branches in Italy, despite predictions that it would not last long in the country famed as Europe’s coffee capital and the home of espresso shots drunk standing at the counter at family-owned bars.

READ ALSO: OPINION: Why do Italians get so angry if you mess with classic recipes?

Starbucks’ locations in Italy are mainly in and around Milan and other parts of northern Italy, which is more affluent and has a higher ratio of international residents than the south.

The chain is now planning to open its first southern Italian store in central Rome, though the location has not yet been revealed. Local media reports speculate that it will be in the Galleria Alberto Sordi shopping centre on the central Via del Corso.

Other US food and drink chains have proven similarly successful at breaking into the Italian food and drinks market. Despite some protests and pushback, McDonald’s is well-established in Italy. In fact, the country now has the fourth-highest number of McDonalds’ outlets in Europe.

But other American food chains have had a harder time. In 2022, pizza giant Dominos announced the closure of its Italian franchise following poor sales. Dominos had not attempted to open any stores in southern Italy, home of Neapolitan and Roman pizza.

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CLIMATE CRISIS

‘Extreme’ climate blamed for world’s worst wine harvest in 62 years

World wine production dropped 10 percent last year, the biggest fall in more than six decades, because of "extreme" climate changes, the body that monitors the trade said on Thursday.

Published: 26 April 2024 08:48 CEST
'Extreme' climate blamed for world's worst wine harvest in 62 years

“Extreme environmental conditions” including droughts, fires and other problems with climate were mostly to blame for the drastic fall, said the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) that covers nearly 50 wine producing countries.

Australia and Italy suffered the worst, with 26 and 23 percent drops. Spain lost more than a fifth of its production. Harvests in Chile and South Africa were down by more than 10 percent.

The OIV said the global grape harvest was the worst since 1961, and worse even than its early estimates in November.

In further bad news for winemakers, customers drank three per cent less wine in 2023, the French-based intergovernmental body said.

Director John Barker highlighted “drought, extreme heat and fires, as well as heavy rain causing flooding and fungal diseases across major northern and southern hemisphere wine producing regions.”

Although he said climate problems were not solely to blame for the drastic fall, “the most important challenge that the sector faces is climate change.

“We know that the grapevine, as a long-lived plant cultivated in often vulnerable areas, is strongly affected by climate change,” he added.

France bucked the falling harvest trend, with a four percent rise, making it by far the world’s biggest wine producer.

Wine consumption last year was however at its lowest level since 1996, confirming a fall-off over the last five years, according to the figures.

The trend is partly due to price rises caused by inflation and a sharp fall in wine drinking in China – down a quarter – due to its economic slowdown.

The Portuguese, French and Italians remain the world’s biggest wine drinkers per capita.

Barker said the underlying decrease in consumption is being “driven by demographic and lifestyle changes. But given the very complicated influences on global demand at the moment,” it is difficult to know whether the fall will continue.

“What is clear is that inflation is the dominant factor affecting demand in 2023,” he said.

Land given over to growing grapes to eat or for wine fell for the third consecutive year to 7.2 million hectares (17.7 million acres).

But India became one of the global top 10 grape producers for the first time with a three percent rise in the size of its vineyards.

France, however, has been pruning its vineyards back slightly, with its government paying winemakers to pull up vines or to distil their grapes.

The collapse of the Italian harvest to its lowest level since 1950 does not necessarily mean there will be a similar contraction there, said Barker.

Between floods and hailstones, and damp weather causing mildew in the centre and south of the country, the fall was “clearly linked to meteorological conditions”, he said.

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