How To Order An Affogato At McDonald's

For most McDonald's customers, the list of available options doesn't leave too much room for interpretation. And while there are McDonald's menu items you should avoid ordering, there are some you can order together and combine, leveraging a little creative license to yield something even better. This is the case with the affogato.

If you haven't had one of these before, it may sound like a McDonald's menu item you should order when traveling internationally, but at its most basic, an affogato is simply ice cream topped with espresso. Given that Mickey D's offers both of these items, there's no reason you can't enjoy this Italian classic treat at your closest location. In a YouTube video, a chef at McDonald's Headquarters demonstrates how to whip one of these bittersweet concoctions with just two standard menu options. Simply order a shot of espresso and a cup of vanilla soft serve, then pour the shot into your soft serve and enjoy.

The affogato is kind of like a caffeinated riff on a root beer float and is a study in contrasts — it's cool, creamy and sweet ice cream, balanced by the bitter, hot coffee. And while McDonald's vanilla soft serve offers the perfect counterpoint to espresso, you can also experiment with using other Mickey D's dessert items. Order a hot fudge sundae and enjoy a mocha flavor profile when the chocolate sauce combines with the shot of espresso or go for a caramel sundae that will call to mind your favorite caramel macchiato but spoonable. You can pour your espresso into an Oreo McFlurry for a coffee-spiked cookies n' cream style treat. And if you opt to bring your McDonald's order home, you can even spike it with a little rum or whiskey as an after-dinner alternative to an espresso martini.

Ice cream is one of the many additions that will give your coffee a boost, no matter how you spin it. In Italian, the word affogato literally translates to "drowned" — as in ice cream drowned in espresso, but with these two items off the all-American McDonald's menu and a little imagination, you're awash with possibilities.