Espresso Martini

The espresso martini is a cocktail of vodka, fresh espresso and coffee liqueur, shaken hard with ice and strained into a chilled glass under a thick, creamy foam, with three coffee beans on top. It isn’t a true martini at all: it was created in London by bartender Dick Bradsell as the Vodka Espresso, and only picked up its famous name in the 1990s. Difford’s Guide calls it perhaps the best-known modern classic cocktail. Here’s Bradsell’s own recipe, and the much-retold story behind it.

The short version

• Vodka, hot espresso and coffee liqueur, shaken hard with ice.
• Hot, fresh espresso makes the foam.
• Three coffee beans on top.
• Created by Dick Bradsell in London’s Soho in the 1980s.
• Three names: Vodka Espresso, Pharmaceutical Stimulant, Espresso Martini.

What’s in an espresso martini?

Dick Bradsell’s later recipe, printed by Difford’s Guide as “Espresso Martini/Pharmaceutical Stimulant”:

Ingredient	Amount
Good vodka	50 ml
Cane sugar syrup	5 ml
Tia Maria	5 ml
Kahlúa	10 ml
Double-strength espresso	25 ml (“the better the coffee, the better the drink!”)
Coffee beans	3, to garnish

Add everything to an empty shaker, add ice, shake and strain into a prechilled glass. Bradsell’s test: “if you can see through it or it is brown, not black, it’s wrong.” Difford’s Guide’s own modern version leaves out the sugar and suggests adding a little sugar syrup only if your coffee liqueur needs it, plus a twist of lemon zest expressed over the top.

How do you get the foam?

Hot, fresh espresso. It seems perverse to pour steaming coffee into a shaker of ice, Difford’s Guide admits, but the espresso’s crema is what makes the foam: let the coffee cool and the crema dies, “and you’ll kill the cocktail”. Shake hard, and fine-strain for a smooth head. For the shot itself, see our espresso guide.

Who invented the espresso martini?

Dick Bradsell, at the Soho Brasserie on Old Compton Street, London. He told Difford’s Guide that the coffee machine sat right next to his station, “coffee grounds were everywhere, so coffee was very much on my mind”, and vodka was all anyone drank. A customer, said to be a model, asked for a drink that would wake her up and then knock her out. Who she was is unknown: Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell are often named, but Difford’s Guide points out they were 9 and 13 at the time, and Bradsell’s daughter Beatrice told Punch he “took that to the grave”.

The date is less certain than the man:

When	Who says so
About 1983	Difford’s Guide; “the given date”, says the Evening Standard
1985	Beatrice Bradsell, because the film Absolute Beginners (released 1986) was being shot in Soho at the time (Punch)
Late 1980s, at Fred’s Club	Bradsell himself, “with a mischievous smile” (Evening Standard)
1981 or 1982	Sophie Parkin, who says he made it for her, as told to GQ (Evening Standard)

How did it get its names?

It began as the Vodka Espresso, an off-menu special served on the rocks: vodka and espresso with a little sugar syrup, no coffee liqueur, Punch says. It reached a menu at Match EC1 in 1997; Punch says that version used coffee liqueur and was served in a stemmed glass, and Difford’s Guide credits a bartender called Vasco there with first serving it straight up in a martini glass. By the end of the 1990s the name Espresso Martini had stuck, though who coined it is disputed. In 1998 Bradsell renamed it the Pharmaceutical Stimulant for Damien Hirst’s Pharmacy restaurant in Notting Hill, where he ran the bar; Punch says that name lasted until 2003.

Espresso martini vs other coffee cocktails

• Irish coffee: hot coffee and Irish whiskey under floating cream.
• Carajillo: espresso with Licor 43, layered or shaken.
• Caffè corretto: espresso “corrected” with grappa or sambuca.
• Affogato: espresso poured over ice cream; a spirit is optional.

Explore every drink in the coffee cocktails chapter.