Take Me Home – Tia Maria Coffee Liqueur
To be honest, up until now I never made the original ubiquitous Espresso Martini. I always replaced the vodka with another spirit. Somehow, it never made sense to me to combine coffee flavours with a rather neutral spirit. So, this time I really stuck to the authentic recipe. Yet, I am also presenting another version of the drink to you which is a bit bold.
Modern classic
First, let us take a look at the original Espresso Martini recipe. Dick Bradsell created the drink in 1983 at the SoHo Brasserie in London, supposedly for a customer who wanted a drink to “wake her up and f*** her up”. Around that time vodka was what nowadays gin is and Dick’s bar station was right next to the coffee machine. The rest – as they say – is history. Apart from that, you can find different ratios for the Espresso Martini out there. However, I kept things simple and just used the equal parts one. The drink is tasty with pronounced coffee and vanilla notes. Yet, I guess I still prefer another more flavourful spirit in the cocktail.
3 cl Tia Maria
3 cl Andraschko Wiener Mischung Espresso
Garnish: Three coffee beans;
Caraway in your coffee?
Well, I told you that my version of the Espresso Martini was a bit daring. Basically, all I did was to replace the vodka with aquavit. Now, you might ask why anyone would do such a thing? However, I have a good reason for that. My fellow blogger Sepo Galumbi’s favourite Christmas Cocktail the Chocosnaps med Klementin combines aquavit with chocolate notes. This is why I thought that aquavit would also work with the roasted flavours of the Espresso Martini. On top of that, I added chocolate bitters to further underline those flavours. Additionally, a bit of vanilla syrup rounds everything off.
3 cl Tia Maria
3 Dashes The Bitter Truth Chocolate Bitters
4,5 cl Andraschko Grand Cru Espresso
0,75 cl Vanilla Syrup
Garnish: Three coffee beans;
In the first split-second you think that you are actually sipping a regular Espresso Martini. However, then the aquavit kicks in and confuses your palate with spicy caraway and coriander seed notes. Nevertheless, the vanilla syrup kind of brings it all together again. Yes, the “Take Me Home” is a bit different, but if you are bored by regular Espresso Martinis this might be a nice way to change things up.
*The fact that I received a product reviewed in this article for free, did not – in any way – influence the rating of said product. The coffe liqueur and the vodka were provided by Borco Marken-Import.
