If you’ve been in any specialty coffee shop recently, you might have noticed shaken espresso on the menu. You might wonder if shaken espresso tastes different, or it’s just a way for baristas to add some flare to their craft. 

It turns out, there are scientific reasons that shaking espresso creates a different beverage than just mixing espresso and ice together.  

The shaken espresso wasn’t invented by a chain café—it was actually developed in Italy and is known as a shakerato. The traditional beverage is crafted by shaking espresso with ice and simple syrup in a cocktail shaker until it’s frosty and frothy. 

If you stir together espresso and ice, you get a beverage that is perfectly decent. Shake that espresso with ice, though, and you create dilution, aeration, and chilling that generate an amazing finished drink. When the hot espresso is shaken with ice, it cools off much faster than if it’s simply stirred, meaning your beverage will be ice-colder. Since the ice melts faster, it also dilutes the drink more and thins out the very strong espresso. Additionally, when it’s shaken micro-bubbles are created, which create a frothy mouthfeel that you’ll perceive as additional sweetness. 

Shaken espressos are often made with a lower volume of milk or water to shots of espresso, meaning they have a stronger coffee flavor and sometimes contain an extra caffeine boost over a standard iced latte. 

If a normal iced beverage strikes you as unpleasantly lukewarm and watery over time, you will avoid that with a shaken espresso since the majority of ice melts quickly and the drink ends up cooler. If you get your drink sweetened with syrup or enriched with milk, the sugar and proteins in those additions will help stabilize the espresso foam and keep your drink frothy. The micro-bubbles will also highlight the sweetness of any compounds you add to your shaker, meaning your vanilla syrup will taste sweeter and your cream will taste richer. 

Experiment with different beverages at your local café or at home and see if you notice the difference. Shake for 10-30 seconds for maximum aeration and chilling, and use as much ice as you can pack into your shaker.  

If you want to try a fun new flavor, we currently are serving the Latta Horchata shaken espresso right now in the Dawson Taylor cafes, and find it exceptionally refreshing on a hot day.