Starbucks is selling olive oil coffee in Italy — here are 7 alternative things people put in their coffee around the world, from cheese to whisky

In a Tuesday press release, Starbucks announced a new coffee line — Oleato — which contains olive oil-infused coffee. 

This isn't the first time Starbucks has offered an unusual recipe, but people seem unsure about olive oil showing up in this round's unorthodox flavors. 

—‎nova (@kuralbs) February 21, 2023

This also isn't the first time olive oil has been added to coffee, it was already a popular Mediterranean custom. But it doesn't stop with olive oil, the world has been having a field day with innovative coffee recipes for decades. 

From eggs, to ghee, to even whisky, people have been adding all sorts of ingredients to spice up their hot cup of brew. 

Here are seven unusual coffee ingredients commonly used around the world — and recipes in case you want to taste for yourself.

The famous Vietnamese egg coffee was invented in the 1940s by a bartender, Nguyen Van Giang, who used egg yolk as an alternative to milk, an ingredient that was scarce during the French colonial period. 

Known for its creamy texture and aroma, "ca phe trung" can now be found on almost any café menu in Vietnam.

The recipe is relatively simple — whip a mixture of egg yolk and sweetened condensed milk until you have soft peaks, then add it to your cup of strong espresso and enjoy your sweet creamy treat. 

Hot coffee with cheese, "kaffeost," is a delicious northen Scandinavian coffee recipe. It's made by a type of cheese called "leipäjuusto" in Finnish — which translates to "bread cheese" in English — to a cup of hot coffee. 

Traditionally made of cow's milk, "bread cheese" is also known as "Finnish squeeky cheese," and is said to be lighter and sweeter than a regular block of cheddar.

The recipe to make this Scandinavian treat is simple. Just add "bread cheese", not just any type of cheese, to hot coffee.

Some may find the wet cheese texture odd, so certain recipes suggest removing the cheese after letting it soak in the coffee for a bit. When doing this, it can be eaten separately on the side. 

Packed full with healthy fats and vitamins, adding ghee to your coffee not only makes your cup of perk-me-up a super drink, it can also help to neutralize the acidity of the coffee. 

But what is ghee? Ghee is a type of clarified butter, which is butter that's been simmered down to remove the water content. Mixing ghee and coffee is said to have originated in either Yemen or Ethiopia. 

Lactose intolerant coffee drinkers can also use ghee as an alternative to cream, as it gives the drink a similar taste and texture. 

The recipe for ghee in coffee is also really simple — essentially just stirring in some ghee into hot coffee — but there are also slightly fancier recipes with extra spices that can be easily made at home. 

This mindblowing blend was invented by an Irish chef, Joe Sheridan, during a winter in the 1940s. The motivation behind the creation was Sheridan's desire to comfort the cold and tired passengers of a delayed flight at an airbase he worked at. 

Combining the alerting effect of coffee, and the body-warming effect of whisky, Irish coffee serves to be the most luxurious cup of beverage one can have on a wintery work day. 

It can now be found in most Irish pubs, and is also fairly easy to make at home according to some recipes — using the basic ingredients of whisky, coffee, and heavy cream — all you need to do is blend in some whisky into a hot cup of coffee and top it off with some lightly-whipped cream. 

People claim that even a different brand of milk can completely change the way their coffee tastes, so imagine how game-changing adding evaporated or condensed milk to your coffee would be. 

In Singapore and Malaysia, "kopi," which translates to coffee, can be  customized to your liking.  Traditionally it's black coffee with condensed milk. The sweet tang in the condensed milk brings out the strong aroma of the Robusta coffee beans. There are other options as well, such as kopi-c, for sugar and evaporated milk instead. Foreigners would need to familiarise themselves with a unique ordering guide if they ever want to try the different variations. 

In Singaporean and Malaysiain coffee shops the ground beans are usually strained through  cotton "socks"— so some recipes suggest using a coffee bag as an alternative. 

Cardamom is a pod spice in the ginger family, making it carry the signature spicy and invigorating fragrance. 

This delicacy is popular in the Middle East, especially Israel. The brew has been said to have many health benefits, as some studies show that cardamom itself lowers blood pressure and improves breathing.  

It's also easy to make — crush a pod and add it to your hot cup of coffee. Some recipes suggest grinding the cardamom with the coffee beans before adding it to water and heating it over a low flame for a more even taste.

The most difficult part of this amazing concoction may just be having all the spices at home, but besides that, Moroccan coffee is definitely worth a shot. 

Typically, a cup would include cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, pepper, cloves, nutmeg, and coffee. It's definitely a few levels up from a basic cardamom coffee, but that also means there are way more health benefits with all the additional spices.

It would save you lots of time if you acquire the spices in the ground form, otherwise most recipes would suggest you grind the spices, mix it with the ground coffee, before mixing it into a pot of hot milk.