Starbucks Adds Olive Oil

Across from my office on Main Street in Santa Monica, Dave Asprey opened the first Bulletproof Coffee store. You might remember the story. Asprey was hiking in Tibet, weak as can be and was given Yak butter in tea by an old Tibet woman and was, supposedly, instantly refreshed.

He came back to the States and developed his own recipe for Bulletproof coffee: low-mold coffee, grass-fed butter or Ghee and coconut oil. The hype promised everything from raising your IQ, increasing your energy, burning away the fat around your middle and of course – increasing your libido.

The Bulletproof café is now closed, since there were hardly any customers going there after all the excitement settled down. I tasted Bulletproof coffee when the café first opened, and frankly, being a black coffee drinker, I practically gagged and thought it tasted awful – even if it could raise my IQ.

So, you might think that Howard Schultz of StarbucksSBUX
fame would be smart enough to retire this time without having his legacy further decimated by introducing “Oleato” – extra virgin olive oil infused coffee drinks. He said in a press release that the idea came to him on a recent trip to Sicily as he was sipping a teaspoon of olive oil every morning, alongside his cup of coffee. He said that “in both hot and cold beverages, what the [combo] produced was unexpected. Velvety, buttery flavor that enhanced the coffee and lingers beautifully on the palate”.

There is a Oleato latte with oat milk and olive oil, a Oleato ice shaken espresso with oat milk, hazelnut flavor and olive oil and the Oleato golden foam cold brew. It’s already being sold in Italy and will be introduced in Southern California, the UK, Middle East and Japan starting this Spring. Starbucks EVP and chief marketing officer Brady Brewer told CNN that they are “betting that people will hear about the concoction and try it because they want to know what it tastes like”.

Seriously? That from a Chief Marketing Officer? He’s been at Starbucks for 22 years. I’m sure he’s accomplished much at the company, but consumers, especially coffee drinkers, aren’t stupid; and with the price of coffee about double what it was in February 2020 I don’t think that there will be an onslaught of people trying it just because they want to know what it tastes like. Ask Dave Asprey.

When Schultz came back to the company for the third time as CEO, he said it was just an interim move and that the Board expected to have selected a new leader by the Fall of 2022. He is reportedly stepping down from the interim role and incoming chief executive Laxman Narasimha will take over in April. Schultz in the meantime is faced with company lawsuits and employee strikes about discrimination, harassment and union busting.

I guess dreaming up Oleato takes his mind off these issues that is before Starbucks. Yesterday after a month-long negotiation, he agreed to testify before Congress about Starbucks’ alleged labor law violations. According to The Seattle Times at least 285 Starbucks stores have successfully unionized and there are 509 unfair labor practice charges against Starbucks and 102 against the union, Starbucks Workers United. Here’s the Union Elections data map of the current unionization status across Starbucks in the United States

Howard Schultz might just need a cup of that Bulletproof coffee after all.