You'll Never Believe the Wild but Completely True Story Behind the Espresso Martini

The espresso martini has survived skepticism, trend cycles, and bartender eye‑rolls to become one of the most popular cocktails in the world. 

A drink once dismissed as a sugary, caffeinated novelty is now a generational staple. You can now find it shaken in dive bars and tasting‑menu destination restaurants alike. It is also embraced by home bartenders and buoyed by a wave of new coffee spirits designed specifically to make it better. The drink’s staying power is undeniable.

And like many great cocktails, it started with a single, unforgettable order. One night in Soho, London, a young model walked up to bartender Dick Bradsell — already a rising force in the city’s bar scene — and asked for a drink that would, in her words, “wake her up and fuck her up.” Bradsell obliged, pulling a fresh shot of espresso from the Illy machine behind the bar and shaking it with vodka and coffee liqueur. The result would become one of the most recognizable cocktails of the last 40 years.

Searching for the History of the Espresso Martini

Most great drink recipes have a somewhat mythic origin story, but the espresso martini has something rarer: a myth that keeps rewriting itself. Even its creator, who died in 2016,  told it creation slightly differently over time, in part because the drink lived different lives as the different bars he worked at.

In an interview Bradsell recorded many years after he created the drink, he remembered the moment happening at Fred’s Club, a Soho institution and called it the Vodka Espresso.

But other contemporary sources, including The Cocktail Lovers profile of Bradsell, and the encyclopedic The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails, place the drink’s creation at another establishment, the Soho Brasserie.

In a 2025 video interview, Bradsell’s daughter, Beatrice Bradsell, also cites the Soho Brasserie as the site of its creation. According to her, it was created during the filming of movie Absolute Beginners, which co-stars David Bowie. “The story of the Espresso Martini has become fabled since its creation in 1985…I’m here to tell the true one,” she says. The Brasserie, on Old Compton Street, was packed nightly with actors, musicians, and anyone hoping to be cast — the kind of place where a drink could become buzzy overnight. As for the model, Beatrice adds: “Who the model was was a story my dad never told…We know that it wasn’t Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell because they would have been too young.”

The Original Espresso Martini Recipe

Bradsell’s ingredient philosophy was more fixed than the lore around the drink. His vodka choice was deliberate. While creating a signature drink for The Times, he used Russian Vodka, which he said in a later video interview wasn’t “politically correct and communist,” so the paper suggested he try Polish vodka instead.  “I discovered Wyborowa and it was really, really good,” he says. “There’s purity to it, a balance I didn’t get from other vodkas.”

The coffee he used in the drink was equally important. “His favorite coffee was Illy,” Beatrice says. The final piece of the puzzle was Tia Maria. It was originally a Jamaican coffee liqueur, which is now produced in Italy. (In 2020, it was rebranded Tia Maria Cold Brew.)

And while the drink became a global phenomenon, Bradsell never treated it as sacred. “He loved making twists with different spirits himself, like tequila or rum,” Beatrice says. The espresso martini was always meant to evolve — and it still is.

The Espresso Martini Revival

The drink’s resurgence in the 2010s was easy to dismiss as a novelty — a caffeinated party trick. But the revival stuck because the drink works. It’s textural, energizing, and built on flavors people already love. Bartenders couldn’t ignore the demand, and the pandemic only accelerated its dominance as home bartenders learned to shake their own versions. 

Coffee Spirits Pushing the Category Forward

The Espresso Martini’s longevity has inspired a new generation of coffee spirits designed specifically to make the drink better — richer, smoother, more consistent, and easier to execute behind the bar.

Belvedere Dirty Brew

Belvedere’s new coffee‑vodka hybrid leans into depth rather than sweetness. Can be used in coffee cocktails as well as chilled as a shot.

Estate 98 Licor de Café Especial

Estate 98 is a newcomer made from 100% single‑estate coffee grown on the slopes of the Santa Ana Volcano in El Salvador, and has more caffeine than any other on the market. For bartenders, it replaces both the coffee and the coffee liqueur in the drink and is designed to produce a foamy crema when shaken.

Mr. Black Cold Brew Coffee Liqueur

Launched in 2013 in Australia, Mr Black has become a bartender favorite for espresso martinis thanks to its coffee‑first profile. Made with cold‑brew arabica coffee and Australian wheat vodka, it delivers a stronger, more aromatic coffee flavor with less sweetness than traditional coffee liqueurs

Espresso Martini

Ingredients

• 2 oz vodka
• 1 oz espresso
• ½ oz coffee liqueur
• ¼ oz simple syrup (one part sugar, one part water)
• Glass: Martini or coupe
• Garnish: Three coffee beans.

Directions

Add all of the ingredients to a cocktail shaker and fill with ice. Shake and strain into a martini or couple glass. Garnish with three coffee beans.

Note: Because the cocktail is so adaptable, try subbing out the vodka with whiskey or aged tequila for more complexity and depth.