I am no stranger to drink customization, especially at Starbucks: a dash of coconut milk here, a nut-milk substitute there, etc. I’m down with all of that. However, I am slightly shaken to hear that Starbucks is bringing the Italian practice of adding olive oil to drinks this spring.

I want to be excited/open-minded about this because I don’t want to be that lame American that only eats chicken tenders and peanut butter, but I have to admit I’m more than a bit apprehensive. Coffee beverages with douses of virgin olive oil are referred to as Oleatos, with such menu items including Oleato golden foam cold brew and the Oleato ice shaken espresso with oat milk. Starbucks claims the spoonful of olive oil adds health benefits and makes the drinks more lush and velvety, which sounds nice and theory, but I remain a bit skeptical.

Unsure of whether I was the only one with doubt about the impending Oleato, I turned to a few of my fellow students for some alternate perspectives.

Senior Kimi Wantanabe, similar to me, did not finding the olive-oil-addition appealing: “My initial reaction is ‘what the heck.’ I would not want to drink that. I might be kind of biased because I don’t like coffee, but that sounds weird. No hate to people that like it, though.”

However, senior Victoria Bush is up for the intimidating mixture: “To be honest, I don’t even know what Starbucks is putting in my drink now, and olive oil sounds like a fun little addition to my cup of joe.”

To close out, I turned to Rosary’s resident expert on coffee/tea beverages: Ms. Barclay, who is rarely seen without a cute little drink in hand. I was curious how a pro-drink-consumer would react to the olive oil extravaganza headed to SoCal. The answer? Not well: “It’s absolutely ludicrous, I don’t want anything to do with it. My older brother Daron drinks a tablespoon of high-quality olive oil a day for the health ‘benefits.’ It is worth mentioning that our family has observed zero visible health benefits in him, and if he does live to 100, none of us will be around to see it.”

Despite all our moaning and groaning, all power to the people that enjoy this Italian delicacy. Let’s be honest: I’m trying the Oleato as soon as it hits my local Starbucks, and who knows, maybe it’ll defy all of our expectations!