A really, really strong cup of coffee: meet the infamous Shot In The Dark

We've seen several coffees that mix lots of ingredients like honey, spices, milk, and even eggs. Time for a coffee that combines ... two coffees! 

As we have seen several times in the past, coffee is a highly flexible raw material, as it can easily be combined with a variety of materials, giving many different flavors. These combinations, different in each country, often reflect the particular tastes and habits of each country. From the United States of America, there is an extremely simple but at the same time very strong cup of coffee: Shot In The Dark!

It is a fact that the Americans have been slow to embrace the espresso, so the American coffee culture revolves mainly around the filter coffee - all the images that have passed to pop culture through cinema and literature depict Americans enjoying filter coffee in cafes and snack restaurants.

One of the first interactions of espresso with American coffee culture gave birth to Cafe Americano - an espresso diluted with hot water to mitigate its intense taste and to increase its size to the size of the coffee cup served in the United States. The urban legend says that the American was born of the American soldiers in Italy of the Second World War, who straightened the espresso they found too strong and bitter - an equally interesting urban legend is hidden behind the birth of Shot In The Dark.

As its name suggests, Shot In The Dark is nothing more than an espresso inside a cup of filter coffee - or an Americano in which the espresso does not dilute with water but with even more coffee. According to testimonies, Shot In The Dark appeared at US airports, and was initially consumed by passengers who had to stay awake on cheap midnight flights - hence his second name, Red Eye, from the so-called "Red Eye Flights" .

Shot In The Dark is found in almost all of the US and Canada - in fact, the Canadians call him Canadiano, making a screaming pun on America. It seems to sum up the whole American coffee culture in a cup: even when they needed a strong, intense and toning coffee, the Americans were hesitant towards the Italian espresso. Thus, they combined two different coffee cultures, culminating in a dynamite coffee.

What will you need for a  Shot In The Dark?

• An espresso
• A cip of filter coffee (fill it with slightly lesser coffee than usual)

How is  Shot In The Dark prepared?

• Prepare the filter coffee and serve it in a cup
• While it's still hot, extract an espresso and spill it in the cup

As with the Americano, the addition of espresso to filter coffee (and not vice versa) preserves the espresso crema. Of course, we need to be careful about caffeine consumption, as each Shot In The Dark is basically equivalent to two coffees. Traditionally, it is enjoyed plain to emphasize its intensity, but of course you can use sugar, milk or even cream. 

If you are studying for exams, if you are going to travel through the night, or if you generally have to stay awake until morning, the solution is taken through American Airport Diners: Prepare a Shot In The Dark and it will fill you with  strength and energy!