If you're a mocha or cappuccino lover, then you need to grab yourself a good coffee shaker to complete the drink. There's nothing better than a dash of chocolate to match bitterness of the coffee and produce high contrast latte art. In this post I'll be listing the best chocolate shakers for making coffee.
The two chocolate shakesrs we tested.
Best chocolate shakers
Coarse coffee shaker - my pick
This is the chocolate shaker I use at home when making coffee. It has a coarse lid that allows you to easily control how much chocolate comes out the tool. It's stainless steel, easy to use, and cheap.
Fine chocolate shaker
The other chocolate shaker I tested is this fine dusting one. It differs from the above shaker in two ways. Firstly, the lid is mesh, which dusts more chocolate over the coffee compared to the coarse one. It’s also smaller in size. Other than that, it does the same job.
Coarse vs fine chocolate duster
Coffee shakers are one of those things where there really isn't much difference between them. Other than price and slight changes in design, they more or less do the same thing. That's why we have only selected two picks in this guide that show the two main different types you can get: fine and coarse cocoa shakers.
Fine vs coarse cocoa shaker.
My preference between the two types is the coarse shaker. The reason being it's a bit easier to control how much chocolate powder comes out of the coarse shaker compared to the fine shaker. When using the fine shaker, I sometimes dust a bit more chocolate than I intended over my coffee, so I find I have to be a bit more careful.
It's important to be able to control how much chocolate comes out of the shaker if you're intended to make high contrast latte art with the shaker, as too much chocolate can turn your cappuccino into a mocha.
How to use coffee shakers for cappuccino latte art
One of the cool things you can do with chocolate shakers is make high contrast latte art. If you've ever ordered a mocha or a cappuccino with chocolate on top, and wondered how the baristas make striking latte art like I did above, I'll show you how to do this below.
You can use coffee shakers to make high contrast latte art like this.
All you need to do is after extracting a shot of espresso is to dust a small amount of chocolate powder on top, and then pour your milk in to make latte art. Make sure you don't put too much chocolate in, as all you want is the chocolate to compliment the coffee rather than over power it.
A light dust of cocoa powder is all you need.
But If you're not good with free pour latte art, you can also get yourselves some coffee stencils to cheat to make latte art. Just put the pattern on top of the drink, then dust your chocolate on top like I did below.
Step one dust chocolate over the stencil.
Step two, you're done!
What chocolate powder is used in cocoa shakers?
I like to use high quality drinking chocolate powder for my coffee dusters. Try a few brands yourself and see what you like. My preference is getting some chocolate powder that's not too sweet so it doesn't over power the flavor of the coffee.
Use high quality chocolate powder for your coffee shakers for the best results.
Conclusion
I hope you now know what you can do with chocolate shakers and which one to buy for your home coffee bar. In summary, I like the coarse shaker below. Give it a go yourself!
Coarse coffee shaker - my pick
This is the chocolate shaker I use at home when making coffee. It has a coarse lid that allows you to easily control how much chocolate comes out the tool. It's stainless steel, easy to use, and cheap.
