WTF is a shaken espresso?
Sometimes I engage in a little capitalism, as a treat.
Like many, my first flirtation with caffeine was through Starbucks. Starbucks essentially created modern coffee “culture,” meaning it transformed imported coffee culture into an Americanized grab-and-go sugar factory, exporting this unrecognizable version back to its origins. Now, Starbucks delivers eviction notices to coffee bars in Europe. Out with the old and in with the new.
I have a morbid curiosity toward Americanization, monopolization, insert fancy verb here.
Starbucks statistics are scary, to say the least. Here’s how Starbucks has grown since my birth (you’re welcome):
All this being said, one of the reasons they dominate modern coffee culture is their excellent advertising. Thanks to Starbucks, caffeine is no longer for the espresso snobs and experts; it’s a highly customizable treat for every type of person. Instead of casually sipping a bitter espresso shot in a sit-in cafe, you can grab a venti iced white mocha with 2 pumps of caramel, salted caramel cold foam, no ice and blonde espresso. Or if you were me in 6th grade, get a caramel Frappuccino (note: milkshake) and call it a day.
The menu has thousands of combinations, ready to suit every single person. Starbucks is run by advertising geniuses. A menu for all.
Which brings us to the shaken espresso. What does it even mean? Starbucks loves to create new drinks out of thin air and make them a staple, something we cannot imagine living without. Take the Frappuccino. Introduced in the summer of 1995, this single creation accounted for 11% of Starbucks’s total sales mere months after its launch.
I keep going on tangents. Let’s come back.
What the fork is a shaken espresso? I found myself ordering this treat in lieu of an iced latte without really understanding what it was. SO let’s take a hot minute during this bustling finals week and figure out what’s going on here.
The Starbucks shaken espresso derives its recipe from an italian beverage called the shakerato. To make a shakerato, you take some espresso, ice, and simple syrup and shake it all up to make it a bit foamy. According to science, when espresso is shaken (shook?), it chills quickly with the ice and gets a bunch of lil microbubbles churned into it, ultimately giving it its froth and lightness.
Starbucks lovingly threw in some milk, making it a shakerato-latte hybrid. But there remains some differences between an iced latte and a shaken espresso. Here’s the two things to keep in mind:
More caffeine: Shaken espresso!
A shaken espresso has an extra shot! For example, a grande iced latte has 2 shots of espresso, and a grande shaken espresso contains 3. You’re getting an extra 64 milligrams of caffeine. WOO!
Sweeter: Latte!
That’s… kinda it! I felt the need to dive into the shaken espresso because I really love it! When I want an espresso beverage, but want something stronger than a latte, this is a great choice. I’ve experimented with some different combinations, but the brown sugar shaken espresso is hard to top.
Anyways, thanks for listening to my procrastination-rambling post! It’ll be a summer of caffeine for me, so I’ll see y’all later, and as always, stay caffeinated!
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