Espresso Martini

The Espresso Martini isn’t a true martini – there’s no gin or vermouth – but it is served in a martini (or coupe) glass. It combines vodka, a shot of fresh, hot espresso and coffee liqueur, sometimes with a little sugar syrup, shaken very hard with ice and fine-strained.

The hard shake is what makes it: the espresso’s oils and crema whip into a dense, velvety foam that sits on top of the dark, cold drink. It tastes of strong coffee first, then sweetness from the liqueur and the warmth of vodka – bitter-sweet, smooth and lively. Three coffee beans are floated on the foam as a garnish.

Born in London’s 1980s bar scene, the drink became a cocktail-bar staple in the late 1990s and 2000s and enjoyed a major revival in the 2020s. Today it’s on cocktail menus almost everywhere.

The Espresso Martini was created by London bartender Dick Bradsell at the Soho Brasserie on Old Compton Street. The year is usually given as 1983, although his daughter has suggested 1985. The well-known story is that a customer asked for a drink that would wake her up and then knock her out, and Bradsell – working next to the bar’s coffee machine – combined vodka, espresso and sugar. It was first served on the rocks as a “Vodka Espresso”.

The drink evolved over the following years. At Match bar in Clerkenwell in 1997 it was served straight up in a martini glass, and coffee liqueur became part of the recipe. Around 1998 Bradsell put it on the menu at Damien Hirst’s Pharmacy bar in Notting Hill as the “Pharmaceutical Stimulant”. By then the name Espresso Martini had stuck, and travelling bartenders carried it around the world, reaching Australia by the early 2000s.