Olive Oil in Coffee: Benefits, Risks, Taste & Best EVOOs to Use

Why everyone started putting olive oil in coffee

The modern wave came from two places. First, Starbucks launched Oleato, a line of coffee drinks infused with extra virgin olive oil, after founder Howard Schultz encountered the Italian habit of taking a spoonful of olive oil daily. Second, the wellness internet treated olive oil coffee like the Mediterranean cousin of bulletproof coffee: fat plus caffeine, but with a healthier reputation than butter.

Most top-ranking articles make the same broad claims: smoother taste, steadier energy, antioxidants, fullness, heart health. Those claims are not all wrong, but they often skip the numbers. One tablespoon of olive oil is about 119 calories. A teaspoon is about 40 calories. A high-polyphenol EVOO at 1,500 mg/kg gives roughly 1.5 mg total phenols per gram of oil, so a 5 g teaspoon supplies around 7.5 mg of measured phenols before digestion and storage losses. A weak or refined oil supplies far less.

That is the missing piece: olive oil coffee should be judged like a dose. What oil, how much, what did it replace, and what is your goal?

The real benefits: what is evidence-based?

There are no large randomized trials showing that olive oil specifically in coffee improves cholesterol, inflammation, cognition, or weight. So the honest evidence chain is indirect: extra virgin olive oil has human evidence; coffee has human evidence; mixing them is a delivery choice, not a proven therapy.

For olive oil, the strongest case is cardiovascular and inflammatory. A systematic review of 30 randomized trials including 3,106 participants found olive-oil interventions reduced C-reactive protein by a mean 0.64 mg/L and interleukin-6 by 0.29, while improving flow-mediated dilation by 0.76 percentage points. The EUROLIVE trial also showed that 25 mL/day of higher-phenolic olive oil improved HDL and lowered oxidized LDL more than low-phenolic olive oil.

But notice the dose: 25 mL/day is close to 1.7 tablespoons. If your coffee contains 1 teaspoon, you are getting a smaller dose. That can still be useful, especially if it replaces sugary creamer or butter, but it should not be sold as a clinical intervention.

Calories, fasting and “clean energy”

The biggest practical mistake is pretending olive oil coffee is calorie-free because it is low carb. It is not. Olive oil is almost pure fat. One tablespoon adds roughly the same calories as a small banana, without protein or fiber. If your goal is weight loss, those calories have to come from somewhere.

Does it break a fast? For strict fasting, yes. It provides energy and triggers digestion. If your personal goal is simply avoiding sugar or keeping carbohydrates near zero, olive oil coffee may fit. But if your goal is a true calorie fast, autophagy-style fasting, or a clean fasting window, black coffee is the cleaner choice.

The fairest “energy” claim is satiety. Some people feel better when caffeine is paired with food or fat instead of taken on an empty stomach. If that stops you from buying a pastry at 10 a.m., it may help. If it is just 119 extra calories before the same breakfast, it probably will not.

Taste: how to make it good instead of greasy

Olive oil floats. If you simply pour it into black coffee and stir with a spoon, you will probably get an oil slick. The better method is emulsion: use a milk frother, blender, or shaken espresso-style technique so tiny oil droplets disperse through the drink. That creates the creamy body people like in Oleato-style drinks.

Start with darker espresso, moka pot coffee, cold brew, or a milk-based drink. Delicate floral pour-over is usually the wrong canvas. A fruity Arbequina can read as almondy or buttery. A Coratina can read as green, bitter, and peppery. A stale oil reads as waxy, flat, and greasy — and no coffee recipe fixes that.

Risks and who should skip it

For most healthy adults, 1 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil in coffee is a low-risk experiment. The people most likely to dislike it are those with reflux, nausea from coffee, gallbladder issues, fat-malabsorption problems, or a sensitive gut. Caffeine can stimulate acid and bowel motility; fat can slow stomach emptying and trigger bile release. Together, they can feel great for one person and awful for another.

If you get heartburn, urgency, stomach cramps, or nausea, do not force it. Move the olive oil to food: yogurt, beans, salad, eggs, soup, sourdough, or vegetables. The oil does not need coffee to be useful.

Best EVOOs for olive oil in coffee

For coffee, the best bottle is not automatically the most extreme oil on earth. You want verified polyphenols, freshness, and a flavor profile that can survive coffee without turning the cup bitter. Our full lab-ranked olive oil list tracks 38 oils; these are the picks I would actually test in coffee first.

Bottom line

Olive oil in coffee is best understood as a delivery format for EVOO, not a breakthrough health hack. It can make coffee creamier, replace less useful fats, and help you build a daily olive-oil habit. The meaningful benefits still come from the oil itself: oleic acid, phenolic compounds, freshness, and using it consistently in a better diet.

Try it if you are curious. Use a teaspoon. Froth it. Count the calories. If it tastes bad or bothers your stomach, do not turn wellness into penance — put the same high-polyphenol oil on food instead. For more dose context, read our guides to the best time to take olive oil and the best olive oil for drinking.