This week, Starbucks released a new drink called the Oleato. The Oleato comes either as a Golden Foam Iced Shaken Espresso with toffee nut syrup, or as a regular Caffe Latte with oat milk. What makes them so special? Well, both drinks are infused with Partanna extra virgin olive oil. Perhaps your eyebrow raised after reading that. Olive oil? In a drink? Yeah, it weirded me out, too.

In order to get a better idea about how this drink would be received by our Starbucks lovers on campus, I brought sample drinks around for UIS students to try.

First up and pictured to the right, were Starbucks lovers Callie Wyant and Abbi Pervett. Wyant said the drink was “a little bitter,” and gave it a 6 out of 10, and Pervett concluded with a 4 out 10.

Next, Mina Edmondson reported that the drink “tastes like a normal latte, but smoother.” This seemed to be the consensus from other students who tried the drink as well. They seemed surprised that the drink wasn’t flat-out disgusting, but they weren’t exactly impressed.

Brooke Frawley also tried the Oleato. She noted that the drink was “just okay” and proceeded to coin the beverage as the “chapstick drink” because it leaves a film over your lips.

All in all, students were surprised by the Oleato drink. They were surprised, like me, to hear that there was actually a drink made with olive oil, and they were surprised when they tried it and it wasn’t actually disgusting. Maybe I’ll finally be brave enough to try it now that so many of my peers have gone before me.