How to Make Starbucks Iced Shaken Espresso: A Guide to Specialty Iced Coffee Recipes

Every summer, iced coffee becomes an unavoidable topic. While browsing online, FrontStreet Coffee discovered that a particularly aesthetically pleasing iced coffee frequently appears on people's recreation lists. It's called "Shaken Espresso," from the familiar coffee brand Starbucks.

Unlike previous iced coffee drinks, Starbucks' Shaken Espresso visually consists of three intermingled layers. Deep brown espresso sits at the bottom, with a creamy milk-tea color in the middle, topped by fluffy coffee foam. The entire presentation is incredibly beautiful, making you want to try making it yourself. Before the heatwave arrives, interested friends should learn how to make it quickly.

Ingredient Preparation

FrontStreet Coffee learned from Starbucks' previous advertisements that this Shaken Espresso isn't actually complicated to make. It starts with espresso as the base, then adds ice cubes and flavor-enhancing syrup. By shaking and vibrating the mixture, it provides the purest espresso with aromatic expression at low temperatures. Finally, it's paired with oat milk rich in grain aroma to create an entirely new iced coffee experience.

For the coffee base, FrontStreet Coffee used their daily house blend "Sunflower · Warm Sun." Tasting the espresso directly reveals crema with vanilla and cocoa aromas, followed by creamy, fruity acidity, and fermented wine flavors. When paired with milk to make lattes or flat whites, it exhibits characteristics of vanilla biscuits and liquor-filled chocolates with very distinct layers. For the oat milk, FrontStreet Coffee purchased the most common OATLY Barista Edition.

Preparation needed: double shot espresso, ample ice cubes, 15g flavor syrup (vanilla), 100g chilled oat milk, 1 cocktail shaker, and a transparent glass.

Replication Process

First, add 180g of ice cubes to the shaker. You can adjust the amount based on the actual volume of your ice cubes - approximately to the 400ml mark on the shaker. Since FrontStreet Coffee used larger ice cubes, only 7 pieces fit inside.

Add 15g of vanilla flavor syrup to the ice cubes, then begin extracting the espresso.

Following the day's calibrated parameters, FrontStreet Coffee used 20g of coffee grounds to extract 36g of coffee liquid in 27 seconds, pouring it over the ice in the shaker.

Immediately cover the shaker and shake vigorously up and down. This action is to "force" more air into the espresso's crema layer, expanding it into abundant foam and giving the coffee a creamier texture.

After shaking for about 1-2 minutes, once the espresso, ice cubes, and vanilla syrup are thoroughly mixed and have released a fluffy, smooth foam layer, pour the chilled espresso into the prepared glass.

Finally, take the oat milk from the refrigerator and let it flow through the foam layer to mix with the coffee liquid until the glass is 80% full.

Tasting and Photography

FrontStreet Coffee tasted the homemade version of Shaken Espresso. First experiencing the abundant vanilla-flavored foam layer, upon tasting, one could detect not only the inherent nutty, caramel, and fermented notes of the espresso but also the aroma of grains. The coffee's bitterness had been neutralized by the added oat milk, while the syrup gave the coffee a hint of sweetness. After drinking, a subtle hint of iced chocolate aroma lingered in the mouth. Thanks to the ice cubes, the entire coffee was both refreshing and rich, making one want to take large gulps - very refreshing and satisfying.

Variations of Shaken Espresso

Besides being a specialty coffee drink on Starbucks' menu, we can also view Shaken Espresso as a method for preparing iced coffee. Therefore, as long as we have ingredients that make coffee taste better and appropriately balance the proportions of each element, we can create a "personalized Shaken Espresso" that perfectly suits our own taste anytime.

For example, when we want to make a mini version of Shaken Espresso without losing the coffee's intensity, we could consider replacing the espresso with a more concentrated ristretto and serving it in a small glass to reduce the proportion of oat milk, making the coffee flavor richer. Similarly, the syrup can be replaced with other flavored types like sea salt caramel, mocha, or toffee.

Additionally, if you don't like the taste of oat milk, you can use regular milk instead. However, the resulting "Shaken Espresso" would actually be more similar to another style of iced latte, wouldn't you agree?

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FrontStreet Coffee

No. 10, Bao'an Qianjie, Yandun Road, Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473