April 2023 Newsletter
Marc here, and I’m taking over newsletter duties this month to give Alan a break. I thought it would be a nice change of pace to share some tips on making a modern classic coffee cocktail – the Espresso Martini.
Despite its’ incredible popularity in our home city (Melbourne), the Espresso Martini was invented in the 1980s by a British bartender named Dick Bradsell. In recent years, it has seen a surge in popularity amongst drinkers both in Australia and around the world, something I can personally attest to having made thousands of them across my career in the hospitality industry.
The original recipe (per the Difford’s Guide) is as follows:
45ml Vodka
20ml Coffee Liqueur
30ml Fresh Espresso
10ml Sugar Syrup
Shake hard in an ice-filled cocktail shaker, fine strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with three coffee beans.
To save time/costs and ensure consistency of product, many bars and restaurants now opt to use cold-brewed coffee instead of fresh espresso in their standard recipes. This may shock purists, but prior to this a lot of places would pre-make a litre or so of espresso before service, chill it in the fridge and use it as required – a method which inevitably resulted in a bitter, stale-tasting drink which was corrected (poorly) by drastically increasing the amount of sugar in the recipe.
However, if you’re reading this, you’re probably going to be making them at home amidst the luxuries of freshly brewed, high quality espresso and more time than would be considered reasonable in a commercial setting, so here’s the recipe I’d use with this in mind.
40ml Frozen Vodka
20ml Coffee Liqueur
40ml Fresh Espresso (Generally I’ll pull a slightly long double ristretto)
No additional Sugar
A tiny pinch of salt flakes
Combine all ingredients into a cocktail shaker, add a large scoop of ice, shake hard and fine strain into a martini glass. Garnish with three beans if desired.
My method addresses a few small issues I’ve always had with the original. For starters, pouring scalding hot espresso over fresh ice makes for a watery finished cocktail thanks to the melting of the ice, and simply chilling the espresso at room temperature or in the fridge will degrade it noticeably. By freezing the vodka and combining this with the fresh coffee before it touches any ice, we can mitigate this factor.
I opt for a long double ristretto pour for the coffee base to extract a slightly sweeter, more concentrated shot of coffee than a traditional espresso shot. Is it a little wasteful? Yes. Is the end product noticeably less bitter and more full-bodied? Also yes.
The salt may seem like a strange addition, but I find it does a better job at rounding any bitter notes and highlighting the sweetness of the coffee liqueur without the cloying sweetness of added sugar masking the star of the show – the coffee.
Our special this Month has arguably the coolest name of any coffee we’ve stocked in recent years:
$64 Per Kilogram
Medium
Exciting aromas of allspice, nutmeg and milk chocolate carry through to the front palate, with bright acidity and a medium body leading to a slightly bitter cacao nib finish with lingering spice notes.
Thanks for reading!
Marc Frew
Coffee for Connoisseurs