We’re firmly of the mind that iced coffee beats hot coffee any time of year. When fall comes around we get our pumpkin spice lattes iced, and zingy peppermint mochas in the winter are even better when they’re nice and cold. So when we heard that Giada De Laurentiis had a special Italian iced coffee recipe to share, we were totally on board. After all, her iced Italian Dalgona coffee was good enough to become a staple of our summer, so we just had to give this one a try. It’s her Italian shakerato iced coffee!
There are a couple of things that we love about this coffee. First of all, it’s all about the technique, not about any fancy ingredients, so it won’t send your coffee budget through the roof. Secondly, it’s super customizable, as you’ll learn later.
So, what exactly is a shakerato? According to De Laurentiis, it’s a shaken, sweetened iced espresso drink that’s available at basically every cafe in Italy. In the traditional recipe, espresso is shaken with ice and simple syrup until it gets nice and frothy, and it’s usually served in a fancy martini glass or champagne coupe with or without ice. Two ingredients, a quick shake, and you’ll feel whisked away to Italy with every sip.
De Laurentiis offers several variations on the traditional recipe. For one thing, she likes to use agave nectar in her shakerato instead of simple syrup. De Laurentiis also says that you can include fun add-ins like Nutella or Bailey’s Irish Cream for extra indulgent flavor, or you can add milk to the shaker so that the drink gets even more frothy.
If you want to feel really Italian, you can add lemon zest to your shakerato. Apparently they love the combination of espresso and lemon – De Laurentiis has another shakerato recipe on her site that’s made with sweet and boozy limoncello.
Feel free to play with the recipe. Use room temperature or cold espresso or iced coffee as your base, but then switch things up with flavored simple syrup, agave nectar, a splash of creamer, or some of your favorite non-dairy milk to make the recipe your own. As for us? An iced pumpkin spice shakerato sure sounds like it would hit the spot right about now.
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