The Coffee Drink Ina Garten Calls 'Rocket Fuel'

It's no secret that a quick shot of coffee is a great tool for anyone who needs a little jolt in their step. Coffee in its various forms is a common morning staple and afternoon pick-me-up. But there's one type of caffeinated beverage that celebrity chef Ina Garten lauds for the energizing boost it provides. Garten, who is no stranger to finding interesting ways to use coffee in her recipes, combines espresso with a sweet, milky vanilla mixture to make an iced coffee drink that she described on her show, "Be My Guest," as "rocket fuel."

Ina Garten's vanilla coffee shakerato is quite a simple recipe that requires only a few ingredients. With some espresso, sweetened condensed milk, simple syrup, and vanilla extract, you have everything you need to make this drink. Just combine these ingredients into a shaker and then shake the mixture with ice for about 30 seconds or until the drink becomes frothy from the milk and super cold to the touch. Poured into its serving glass, this drink is sure to give you some extra pep to tackle anything that comes your way!

There are many styles of Italian coffee that you should try out, but don't be surprised if the shakerato ends up topping your list. Though Ina Garten adds an element of vanilla and sweet cream to the fold, the original Italian iced coffee style is an even simpler mixture of espresso and sugar shaken over ice. When that summer heat hits, you'll be pleased at just how little effort is required to make a cold, stimulating drink to help you wade through the hot weather.

One of the wonderful appeals of the shakerato –- apart from being super refreshing and pleasant to taste –- is that its simplicity allows for a lot of potential customization. One simple way is subbing out the standard granulated sugar for simple syrup, which will combine with the espresso much more easily than its solid counterpart. Also, as Garten has demonstrated, other ingredients can be added to the shakerato base to provide extra flavors that complement cold coffee so well.

Giving your iced coffee the cocktail shaker treatment is already one great way to improve your cold coffee beverages, as it adds some more airiness for your ingredients to breathe. Shaking coffee with sugar will create a bit of a frothy head on its own, but adding cream/milk to the mix, as Ina Garten demonstrates, creates some exceptional foam at the top of your tincture. Once you start shaking, you may never want to stir again.

But this isn't where your experimentation needs to stop. You can take inspiration from Garten's version of the shakerato to start adding fun flavors to your own iced coffees. Caramel works brilliantly as a sweet component to iced coffee (try drizzling some caramel along the sides of your glass before pouring the rest of the drink into it). Cinnamon, brown sugar, and maple syrup are also all excellent choices if you want to try out some new, distinct flavors in your iced coffee. And if you want to try adding a boozy touch to it, you might consider adding Campari for some extra complexity. Irish cream and other liqueurs are also solid choices. With the options on the table, there's no need to worry about ho-hum iced coffee ever again.