Espresso Martini
Vodka, fresh espresso, coffee liqueur. The cocktail that wakes you up so it can put you to bed.
Ingredients
- 2 oz vodka
- 1 oz fresh hot espresso
- 0.5 oz coffee liqueur (Kahlúa, Mr Black, or Borghetti)
- 0.25 oz simple syrup, optional, to taste
- Cubed ice, for shaking
- 3 coffee beans, for garnish
Method
- Pull a single fresh shot of espresso and let it cool for 30 seconds — hot enough to bloom the foam, cool enough to chill quickly.
- Add vodka, espresso, coffee liqueur, and optional syrup to a shaker filled two-thirds with ice.
- Shake hard for 15 seconds. The foam comes from the espresso oils plus the air you whip in; no shortcuts.
- Double-strain into a chilled coupe through a fine-mesh strainer to keep ice shards out of the foam.
- Float 3 coffee beans on the foam — health, wealth, happiness in the Italian tradition.
Flavor
Rich, dark, properly bitter. Sweet enough on the front to drink dessert-style, bracing enough on the finish that it never reads as a milkshake.
History
Invented by Dick Bradsell at Fred's Club in Soho, London, in the mid-1980s. A model — possibly Naomi Campbell, though Bradsell only ever said "a famous model" — asked him for something that would "wake me up, then mess me up." The drink he built off that brief.
The foam is non-negotiable. If it doesn't have a thick crema on the surface, the espresso wasn't fresh or you didn't shake hard enough. Fresh espresso, hard shake, every time.
Pairs With
- Tiramisu
- Dark chocolate truffles
- Late-night charcuterie
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