Why You Should Think Twice Before Adding Olive Oil To Iced Coffee

In case you missed the trend, people have been adding olive oil to their morning coffee ever since Starbucks debuted its Oleato line of olive oil infused coffee drinks in early 2023. The pairing had nearly everyone but olive oil manufacturers scratching their heads, but more than a year later we still see people enjoying the interesting mix. The topic of olive oil and coffee came up when we chatted recently with coffee expert and ex-barista, Matthew Woodburn-Simmonds.

More specifically, we got to talking about how the olive oil trend works with iced coffee. "Olive oil starts to solidify around 50 degrees Fahrenheit," Woodburn-Simmonds told Tasting Table. "So I wouldn't be adding it to iced coffees just in case you end up with little olive oil lumps forming in your drink." 

There's a surprising amount of history behind adding olive oil to coffee as people have been pairing coffee with fats like oil and butter for years. While our ancestors may have been content with a lumpy cup of coffee, modern coffee drinkers expect a higher quality brew. It's difficult enough to get olive oil and coffee to blend well when the coffee is hot. That difficulty is compounded even more when dealing with iced coffee since, as Woodburn-Simmonds pointed out, the temperature of the coffee is working against a seamless blend of the two liquids. Does this mean you should never mix olive oil and iced coffee? Not necessarily.

If there wasn't a way to get olive oil to work with iced coffee then Starbucks wouldn't have a cold brew as part of the Oleata line. There are two things to keep in mind. First of all, cold brew and iced coffee aren't the same thing. More relevant is the fact that, unlike with the hot coffee versions, Starbucks doesn't infuse the olive oil directly into the drink. Instead, the baristas use an olive oil-infused cold foam.

How exactly they get the olive oil to combine with the cold foam without solidifying isn't public knowledge. They may use a process similar to how dairy companies homogenize milk by blasting the mixture into tiny pieces until the olive oil particles are so small that, even if they were solidified, they'd be too tiny for your tastebuds to notice. If you're trying to imitate this at home you could use a blender to blend the olive oil and cream together to get a similar effect.

Even though Starbucks has the cold brew Oleate, that doesn't necessarily mean it works well. Customers have walked away with a chunky cup of Starbucks coffee before. If you're dying to make it work, the blender trick is one method. You could also steam olive oil and milk together to get that creamy texture. As for us, we think we'll take Matthew Woodburn-Simmonds' advice and stick with hot coffee when we want olive oil.