Easy Iced Shaken Espresso (Starbucks Copycat)

This easy iced shaken espresso is a tasty drink that coffee lovers will adore. Full-bodied espresso, sweet foam, and your milk of choice — it’s love at first sip! 

Calling all coffee lovers! This is the perfect drink to make when you want something slightly fancy but not too complicated. 

While based on one of many popular Starbucks drinks, iced shaken espresso has been cropping up all over coffee shops. In fact, shaken espresso has been popular for a while in Italy. Known as caffè shakerato, the Italian version skips the flavoured syrups and milk, instead keeping it simple with espresso, sugar and ice. 

This recipe recalls the Starbucks version with the addition of any kind of milk. If you prefer to keep it old-school though, feel free to skip the milk altogether. It’s all up to personal preferences! 

Why it Works

The thing that makes this a great recipe is the combination of simple ingredients and a unique method. Just like cocktails become foamy when shaken with ice, so does sweetened coffee. 

When shaken, the coffee and sugar mixture creates a delicious foam with just the right amount of sweetness. Served over ice with a splash of milk, it’s a great way to level up your morning brew without much effort. 

What You Need

• Espresso: It doesn’t matter what kind of espresso maker you use for this recipe, so feel free to stick with your preferred method. Whether you typically use a Nespresso machine, moka pot, or instant espresso, the method doesn’t matter as long as it yields rich espresso. If you don’t typically have espresso, you can also use cold brew coffee instead, it will just be slightly weaker in flavour and caffeine. 
• Simple syrup: This recipe calls for plain simple syrup (see notes for recipe). If you’d like richer flavour, use brown sugar instead of white sugar, or if you already have flavoured syrup, that will work too! 
• Ice: Ice is super-important, as shaking the espresso with ice is what causes it to foam up. You’ll need a few cubes for shaking, plus a few cubes for serving so make sure you have fresh ice on hand before you begin this recipe. 
• Milk: This recipe can be made with whole milk, skim milk or any non-dairy milk including almond milk, oat milk or soy milk. If you prefer your coffee without milk, you can also omit it altogether. 

Optional Variations

If you want to experiment, here are a few easy ways to mix things up: 

• Vanilla: add a small amount of vanilla extract, vanilla bean, or toasted vanilla syrup to the shaker.
• Olive oil: If you want a Starbucks copycat recipe for the olive-oil-infused iced shaken espresso, simply add ½ - 1 teaspoon olive oil to the shaker, and swap simple syrup for hazelnut syrup (which can be found at most supermarkets) 
• Decaf: Use decaf coffee beans to make your espresso
• Sweet and salty: For extra depth, add a pinch of sea salt to the shaker. 

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