Why is Espresso Martini so successful?

How the success of specialty coffee has reached the cocktail industry

It's midnight and the street smells of coffee. How can it be? The espresso machine in any self-respecting cocktail bar today is working flat out, coffee after coffee, to supply the demand for the trendy cocktail: the Espresso Martini.

"I want something that wakes me up and then gets me drunk. That was the phrase that inspired bartender Dick Bradsell of London's Soho Brasserie to create the Espresso Martini around 1983. It is not known for sure who said it to him: he remembers it was a top model and the urban legend talked about Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell, but they were both children at the time.

In any case, Bradsell explains that he always had the site's coffee machine in mind and it could not be otherwise, since it was right next to where he prepared the drinks, so in response to that request he came up with the idea of making something with vodka, the distillate of choice at the time, with a cup of espresso, coffee liqueur and sugar, all well shaken in a cocktail shaker with ice and served on the rocks. He called it Vodka Espresso.

But as Difford's Guide, the bible of cocktails, explains, it soon became fashionable to serve everything in a Martini glass and it was then that Bradsell returned to prepare it at the Match bar in 1997, and thus was born the Espresso Martini, which has nothing to do as a cocktail with the Martini except the glassware where it is served.

And now another trend has once again catapulted it to stardom: that of coffee. It is logical to think that thanks to the growth of the taste for specialty coffee, everything to do with coffee will be a trend. In the case of the Espresso Martini, where coffee is the protagonist, a good, freshly brewed coffee makes the great ideas combined in this drink shine even brighter.

The explanation for its success also has to do with the effects of the cocktail itself. It is well known that alcohol acts as a nervous system depressant and that its consumption gradually makes us drowsy until we sink into an inevitable stupor from which we wake up the next morning with the inevitable headache. However, the caffeine in Espresso Martini acts as a revitalizer, and in a long and lively night, whether at the beginning, during or towards the end, that little push to continue enjoying the hours is appreciated. This, added to the beauty of the cocktail, which is elegant, dark, with a finger of foam, and the possibility of adjusting the recipe in terms of distillates or sweetness to the consumer's taste, just like someone who drinks their coffee without any sugar or who adds three spoonfuls, have contributed to the success of the drink.