Name: How to Make the Best Affogato
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Ingredients: scopps ice cream

Affogato — Photo:
Chelsea Kyle / Food Styling by Drew Aichele

Prep Time:

0 mins

Cook Time:

5 mins

Total Time:

5 mins

Yield:

1 serving

In my early 20s, I shared a cubicle wall with an older, wiser woman (she was 33) who always knew what she wanted. She was full of advice — about dating, emergency funds, skincare. And so, when she arrived one morning with a pint of Häagen-Dazs vanilla bean ice cream because “sometimes you need an affogato on a workday afternoon,” I nodded violently in agreement — and then promptly Googled, “What is an affogato?”

The affogato is the melding of espresso and ice cream, two after-dinner classics.Its magic lies in the yin and yang: bitter, sweet, hot, cold, black, white. As a friend of mine who also happens to be a dedicated affogato fan put it, “An affogato is always unexpected since we stereotypically associate coffee with restraint and ice cream with indulgence.”

What is an affogato?

“Affogato,” translated from Italian, means “to drown.” Beyond that, there’s little consensus about what makes an affogato, an affogato. Some say it requires a fresh pull of espresso and gelato — and only vanilla gelato, at that. Others argue that an affogato can be made at home with a strong shot of Moka pot coffee (or instant espresso) and whatever freezer-burned pint you have handy. And then there are the more debaucherous — or, depending on your perspective, daring — among us who argue for combining or even subbing coffee with spirits or liqueurs like whiskey, rum, Kahlua, or Drambuie.

The affogato’s origin story is suspect. According to Porte, we may owe credit to the 17th-century Franciscan friar Angelico (the same cleric who brought us the hazelnut-based Frangelico liqueur), but more likely, the affogato appeared in Italy sometime in the 1950s when the ice cream industry modernized. As for when it hopped the Atlantic and appeared on menus in the U.S., there’s no clear consensus. What we know is that “affogato” first appeared in the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 1992, in a nod to its surge in popularity stateside. (Starbucks’s now-ubiquitous frappuccino appeared in 1995. Coincidence? I think not.)

The great affogato resurgence

Earlier this year, a viral Instagram post by Sam Youkilis featuring a Sicilian riff on the affogato brought the dessert back into the spotlight. Through a series of videos and shots, we witness an affogato inverted — vanilla gelato spread around the edges of the cup and a shot of espresso pulled directly into the center. Youkilis’ post has over 170,000 likes. “I’m calling it. Most copied dish of 2023,” Marc-Olivier F. Frappier, the chef of Vin Mon Lapin in Montreal, wrote in the post’s comments.

Although I failed to find a Sicilian affogato near my home in Los Angeles, I did find one on the menu at Kumquat Coffee in Highland Park. Theirs is made with McConnell’s sweet cream ice cream and your choice of espresso or hojicha. The hojicha version tastes much like a scoop of matcha ice cream, milk, sweet, but almost cloying; the classic espresso scratches the itch for the bitter-sweet balance. Topped with ground cacao nibs for added crunch, it strikes that delicate balance between bitter and sweet. When I ask the barista if the affogato is a popular order, he says. “Oh, yeah. We get like 10 tubs [of McConnell’s ice cream] and go through it in under a week. I mean, it’s ice cream.”

Of course, it wouldn’t be the dessert of 2023 if we weren’t playing a seemingly endless game of whack-a-mole with riffs. Nobu in Malibu serves an affogato with chocolate biscotti and black honey gelato; Blkdog Coffee in Houston doubles down with coffee ice cream to create a tiramisu version. At Caffè Panna in New York City, you’ll find five different affogato variations on the menu, plus the occasional affogato sundae special.

“Affogatos are a staple at the Italian bars and gelaterias that inspired Caffè Panna,” says Caffè Panna’s director of operations, Seth Frankle. “Using freshly spun ice cream and Italian panna — imported Italian cream from Piemonte, that we whip fresh daily — takes it up a level.”

Then there’s the so-called ‘It’s-It’ affogato at Andytown Roaster in San Francisco. “I’m a Ben & Jerry’s girl,” Lauren Crabbe, Andytown’s owner and CEO. “I like chewing when I’m eating ice cream — so the same had to be true for our affogato.”

For those unfamiliar, the It’s-It is an ice cream sandwich made with two oatmeal cookies dipped in chocolate. The baristas at Andytown slice a vanilla Its-It in half, placing it chocolate side down in the bowl, then slowly pour espresso over it.

“Believe it or not, we did a lot of R&D for this,” says Crabbe. “We tried other Its-It flavors; we added whipped cream. This was the best by far. You get the beauty of the oatmeal cookie, the melting chocolate. It’s a dream.”