Your Espresso Martini Might Not Actually Contain Espresso

It is fairly well established, well into its renewed popularity, that the espresso martini is high among the drinks that bartenders just hate making. Its titular ingredient is the primary reason for beverage professionals' espresso martini disdain, as the espresso must ideally be pulled and cooled before it can add its caffeine kick to your tipple. Short cuts, of course, do exist. Plenty of reasonable hacks, like using other coffee varieties to save time or money, might even be imperceptible to plenty of palates. But rumor has it some locales eschew not only the espresso, but even any dupes, all together.

Restaurants and bars can batch-make espresso before a rush and still shake up a final product that's pretty close to the historically accurate espresso martinis imbibed by our ancestors. Added to vodka and Kahlúa or other liqueur, this workaround can still fulfill most of a standard espresso martini's technicalities. It should net an A-minus espresso martini, at worst. And dual stimuli-seeking drinkers can reasonably be assured a lot of spots with espresso martinis listed on its menus are keeping them true to form. But your so-called espresso martini might actually be absent its raison d'être in some other cases.

Your favorite neighborhood cocktail bars with espresso martinis on its rosters are almost certainly going to have the appropriate trio of ingredients to make them. But, for all of its seeming ubiquity, it's unlikely most establishments have a proper espresso martini listed among its tipples. According to Nation's Restaurant News, market research from 2023 posited espresso martinis were on a scant 5% of all U.S. menus, despite CNN dubbing 2022 "the year of the espresso martini." The other roughly 95% of liquor license holding establishments that don't have espresso in-house at all may have occasion to use possible trade-offs.

There are a few tiers of substitutions you may or may not find acceptable — or even notice. Destinations that batch-make espresso before service are making the next best thing compared to fresh-pulled espresso. Yes, you're missing the light crema of fresh, but you're still getting the rich depth the drink intends. Readily available cold brew concentrates might be the next best thing, as the turbo charged liquid approximates espresso rather convincingly. Drip coffee is going to be a distant third, and you might want to skip the espresso martini if the notably thinner coffee is all they have brewing behind the bar. 

Now, if you're ordering off menu in some charming roadside dive miles from the nearest TikTok backdrop, you should not be surprised if you end up with something that flies farther afield than any of the above adaptations. And, perhaps, you can even embrace the surprise to come. But a pretty obvious espresso substitution of coffee liqueur for a classic espresso martini actually crosses over to another known drink.

The aforementioned dive bar, for example, probably has vodka, and very possibly a coffee liqueur, but unlikely has an espresso machine. On ice, vodka and coffee liqueur alone make a black Russian. Chilled and served up in a traditional V-shaped glass or coupe, it won't quite pass for an espresso martini, but rather a sweet, somewhat syrupy, coffee-inspired after-dinner drink that can stand in for dessert. Does it have the same brand recognition or hashtag opportunities as an actual espresso martini? Certainly not. But necessity, as is said, is the mother of invention, and, hey, at least it'll keep you on better terms with your bartender.