Caffè Shakerato
Espresso, sugar and ice, shaken hard in a cocktail shaker and strained into a chilled stemmed glass. The thick foam on top is pure coffee, and it comes entirely from the shaking.
At a glance
- Espresso : ice melt
- 1:1
- Active time
- 3 min
- Total time
- 4 min
- Makes
- 1 coupe
- Serve
- Strained, no ice
- Kit
- Cocktail shaker
Ingredients
Note: Sugar is close to mandatory here. It helps stabilise the foam as well as sweetening, and an unsweetened shakerato collapses within a minute.
Method
-
Chill the glass
Coupe or martini glass in the freezer for ten minutes. The drink is served without ice, so the glass is doing the work of keeping it cold.
Chill 10 minutes -
Dissolve the sugar in the hot shot
Pull the double straight into the shaker and stir the sugar in while it is still hot.
Sugar will not dissolve once the coffee is cold, and undissolved sugar gives you a gritty drink and a thin foam.
-
Add ice and shake hard
Six cubes in, seal it, and shake vigorously for fifteen to twenty seconds. You want it loud and you want the shaker to frost on the outside.
Shake harder than feels necessary. The foam is entirely a product of how much air you beat in.
Shake 15 to 20 seconds -
Double strain into the glass
Strain it, ideally through a fine mesh as well, so no ice shards get through.
It should pour out with a two-centimetre head of pale foam that holds for several minutes.
Why this works
The foam is the point and it is made of nothing but coffee and air. Espresso is already loaded with surfactants, the oils and melanoidins that make crema hold together under pressure. Shaking it hard with ice forces air into that liquid and those same compounds wrap around the bubbles and stabilise them, in exactly the way milk proteins do in a cappuccino. No dairy involved.
Sugar does more than sweeten. It raises the viscosity of the liquid, and a thicker liquid drains out of a foam more slowly, so the head lasts. That is why a shakerato made without sugar looks impressive for thirty seconds and then goes flat, and why Italian bars never make it unsweetened.
The ice is a chiller, not an ingredient. It drops the espresso from 70°C to near freezing in fifteen seconds and contributes a little dilution, which softens the bitterness. Straining it out is what keeps the drink concentrated rather than turning into a watery iced coffee over the next ten minutes.
This is the Italian answer to summer coffee and it is treated as a bar drink rather than a cafe one, which is why it arrives in a stemmed glass. Order one in Milan in August and it comes out looking like a cocktail.
Variations
- Shakerato al liquore: a splash of amaretto, sambuca or Baileys in the shaker.
- Unsweetened: possible, with a much thinner head. Shake for longer.
- With a strip of lemon peel twisted over the foam.
Made it?
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Questions
Why is there no foam on mine?
Either you did not shake hard enough or long enough, or there was no sugar. Fifteen to twenty seconds of genuinely vigorous shaking, with the sugar dissolved in the hot shot beforehand.
Can I make it without sugar?
Yes, but the foam will be thin and will collapse quickly. Sugar thickens the liquid, which is what makes the head last. Shake longer if you leave it out.
Shakerato vs iced shaken espresso?
A shakerato is strained and served with no ice in a stemmed glass, unsweetened or lightly sweetened, no milk. An iced shaken espresso is poured over fresh ice with syrup and usually topped with milk.
Do I need a cocktail shaker?
A sealed jar works. You need something airtight you can shake hard, because the foam is made of air beaten into the coffee.