Starbucks Launched New Products... Drinking Not Coffee, but the Barista's Confidence!

On June 14th, Starbucks China announced a new iced coffee category: the "Iced Shaken Espresso" series, launching with two products — the Sea Salt Caramel Iced Shaken Espresso and the Tahitian Vanilla Style Iced Shaken Espresso.

As one of the earliest pioneers of the hidden menu, Starbucks once gave official status to off-menu creations. The International Financial News once reported that Starbucks spokesperson Maggie Jantzen told CNBC that, thanks to these "hidden menus," Starbucks baristas can learn to make more than 170,000 customized beverages...

The pull of those personalized drinks is such that some eventually graduate onto the official menu — and that's exactly how the "Iced Shaken Espresso" series earned its place, ordered often enough by enough people.

The Origin and Story of Caffe Shakerato

The series has an original name: Caffe Shakerato. A national beverage of Italy, built on the country's essential daily ritual — espresso. But when summer heat arrives, Italians want a refreshing iced espresso that doesn't water down the coffee's character with ice-melt.

So Italian bartenders borrowed cocktail technique: pour extracted espresso into a shaker full of ice with a suitable amount of syrup, and shake. Before the espresso can react, it takes an ice bath — preserving the rich aroma and intense flavor while adding a touch of sweetness and whipping up dense, creamy foam. The result looks and feels like drinking a dark beer.

Of course, every bartender's Caffe Shakerato is a little different. Some add sweet spirits to turn it into a coffee cocktail. The practice gradually spread across Europe and slowly gained a following.

Global Adaptations and Evolution

Each new country adapts the drink to local taste: different milks or plant-based milks, different flavored syrups. This Caffe Shakerato is now a signature at many cafés in Europe and the Americas — and it's also the original way of making iced cappuccino.

The Technical Challenge

But shaking this coffee into fine, dense foam is genuinely hard. It tests the bartender's shaking technique to the limit — and the process demands lots of ice! Lots of ice! Lots of ice! Only enough ice chills the espresso quickly while keeping dilution from rapid melting in check.

The shaking motion itself needs that infinity-shaped sweep to produce fine, dense foam. That's why, popular though this drink has been abroad for years, relatively few cafés dare to list it.

Starbucks adding the Iced Shaken Espresso is a bold call! Making one well is not easy — even if customers don't care about foam texture, the drink is taxing on the barista, especially during "chaotic shifts" (peak hours).

Social Media Reception and Consumer Experience

The launch became an instant social-media talking point for two reasons. First, it breaks from traditional espresso methodology, refreshing consumers' sense of what espresso can be, and may model a new round of product innovation across coffee shops. Second — what you're drinking in this beverage isn't really coffee. It's the barista's confidence.

Plenty of netizens have compared notes on how their Iced Shaken Espresso was made and how it tasted. Some felt shortchanged: essentially a flavored latte topped with a layer of coarse foam. Others watched their barista go through the motions, producing no foam at all...

One netizen even reported that the barista, without saying a word, substituted whole milk for the oat milk the recipe called for — and never mentioned it at handover. For a lactose-intolerant customer, that would be a real problem...

Future Prospects and Conclusion

Launching the Iced Shaken Espresso is certainly a help for the brand's next round of "breaking out," but the process can't guarantee consistency from cup to cup. Whether it earns a permanent slot on the menu remains to be seen.

Does it taste good? That's subjective. The only certainty is that baristas who finish making it will gain confidence, graduate from socially anxious to socially assured, develop noticeably more defined arm muscles — and add "bartender" to their future career options.

DIY Instructions

And in daily life, anyone can make a Caffe Shakerato! Grab a sealable cup (a proper shaker is best), fill it more than halfway with ice (smaller cubes preferred), add syrup or sweet spirits to taste, pour in espresso made from freeze-dried coffee powder or pre-made espresso liquid, and start shaking — stress relief and savings in one!

(I must have opened it the wrong way)

One more time? No no, I need to go do laundry...

Image source: Internet, Starbucks China

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

A Caffe Shakerato is only as good as the espresso you shake into it, so the beans are the foundation. For classic Italian-style espresso with thick, stable crema — exactly what shaking demands — choose the FrontStreet Classic Blend or Commercial Blend: both add a small share of Robusta to a traditional Italian recipe, yielding butter, nut, spice, dark chocolate, and toast aromas with a wild, full-bodied character and abundant golden crema.

For nut-forward espresso, pick the FrontStreet Signature Blend or Black Cocoa Blend: both carry a large proportion of Brazilian beans for comfortable bittersweetness and creamy peanut fragrance, with the Signature Blend adding Colombian nut, chocolate, and caramel notes and a gentle acidity, while FrontStreet Coffee's Black Cocoa Blend brings Yunnan's ripe-plum acidity and a creamy cocoa aroma — balanced, versatile, and ideal for signature drinks.

Want to shake a fruity version? Try the medium-roast FrontStreet Strawberry Candy espresso blend — low bitterness with grape, dried blueberry, sweet orange, and fruit-candy flavors, a rich layered profile, and a distinctive almond finish.