Italy · summer
Espresso shaken hard with ice and sugar until it foams, then strained into a chilled glass. Italian, and the best iced coffee there is.
A caffè shakerato is a double espresso shaken hard with ice until it is cold and foaming, then strained into a chilled glass with no ice in it.
It is the standard Italian summer coffee, and it is dramatically better than iced coffee made by pouring espresso over cubes.
Two things happen in the shaker.
Rapid chilling. The espresso goes from 60 °C to near freezing in about fifteen seconds, which is fast enough that the ice barely melts. Pouring hot coffee over ice, by contrast, melts a lot of it and the drink is watery before you taste it.
Aeration. Hard shaking whips air into the espresso, and the coffee’s own oils and proteins hold it as a thick, stable crema-like foam. That foam is what makes the drink; it lasts several minutes and it is the reason to bother.
Pull a double espresso. Stir in sugar to taste while it is hot — sugar will not dissolve once the drink is cold.
Add to a cocktail shaker with four or five ice cubes. Shake hard for fifteen to twenty seconds — you want it genuinely cold and your hands uncomfortable.
Strain into a chilled coupe or martini glass. No ice in the glass.
A splash of amaretto or Baileys is common in bars. Some places shake with a little cream. Purists use espresso, sugar and nothing else.
An espresso martini is a cocktail: espresso, vodka, coffee liqueur, sugar. A shakerato is coffee.
Shaking aerates the espresso into a stable foam and chills it in seconds rather than diluting it slowly. Pouring hot espresso over ice melts the ice and gives you weak, watery coffee.
Into the hot espresso, before shaking. Sugar dissolves poorly in cold liquid, and adding it afterwards leaves it sitting in the bottom of the glass.
The equipment this actually requires — not a shopping list, the shortest route to doing it properly.
58 mm commercial portafilter · 3-way solenoid · steel body
A 58 mm commercial portafilter, a steel body and a three-way solenoid, in a machine cheap enough to modify. Nothing else at this price is still worth owning in fifteen years, and nothing else has this much of an aftermarket.
Best for: Someone who wants one espresso machine for the next fifteen years and does not mind learning it.
≈ $500 / £400 / 450 €
Double-walled borosilicate that keeps a drink hot and the outside cool, and shows the layers of a latte. Cheap enough to replace when one inevitably goes.
Best for: Espresso-based milk drinks, and anyone who likes seeing them.
