Like Phar Lap and Russell Crowe, this dark, sweet and frothy cocktail is an adopted national treasure.
A few years ago, you might have seen articles about Aussie-style cafes cropping up overseas – places like Bluestone Lane that wanted Americans to drink flat whites and long blacks, just like we do. It’s a bit cringe to think of New Yorkers eating Vegemite on toast with a double espresso as part of an ‘authentic’ Australian experience (it’s not as embarrassing as Outback Steakhouse, at least). But it does give us Down Under types a nice reminder that, hey, our coffee is really great, actually. Like, maybe best-in-the-world-level great?
So, considering our famous love of coffee, is it any wonder that the Espresso Martini – a buzzy blend of espresso, coffee liqueur, vodka and sugar syrup – has become our de facto national cocktail? We reckon it makes a lot of sense that our caffeinated culture continues into the evening, long after most of us have put our KeepCups on the dish rack. Here’s how it happened.
The 1980s is not a decade fondly recalled by cocktail lovers. Experts (possibly unfairly) call the era ‘grim’ and a ‘dark age’ that had to be rescued by the cocktail renaissance of the 2000s. But, while plenty of cocktails from the ’80s seem like kitschy throwbacks today (like the Japanese Slipper), the Espresso Martini seems pretty darn contemporary – to us here in Australia, at least. It’s a testament to a well-crafted drink – and we have a Brit named Dick Bradsell to thank.
The story goes that this very much respected cocktail bartender first whipped up the Espresso Martini at a bar called Fred’s Club. It was supposedly in response to a request by a now-famous model who wanted a drink that was a little more stimulating than the average cocktail. Whether the story is true or not, it doesn’t really matter. When Dick created the Espresso Martini, he made sure Australians would get the chance to drink coffee after dark in a delicious new way. Put that guy on our money, honestly.
This may come as a shock but – deep breath – the rest of the world does not share our love for the Espresso Martini. As local drinks legend Fred Siggins points out in his history of the cocktail, a general desire for faster, cheaper versions of the drink (like using filter coffee instead of espresso or subbing real coffee for coffee liqueur) meant that the quality really dropped off in most places and, after a big surge in the 1980s and ’90s, most of the world happily said goodbye. Not here, though.
In Australia, we love espresso-based drinks – thanks in large part to the wave of 20th- century Italian migrants who brought their own fondness for good, strong coffee with them. These days, we’re parochially proud of our coffee-obsessed cafes, with shiny espresso machines and tattooed baristas part of the package. Even in cocktail bars and restaurants in Australia, espresso has never really been seen as some novelty – it’s almost expected.
With espresso machines on hand and a near-obsessive love of good coffee, our Espresso Martinis never went through the same flavour recession as the rest of the cocktail-making world. So, next time a bartender pulls a shot of espresso for your cocktail at 3am in a nightclub, you’ll know why they call this the Lucky Country.
The Espresso Martini hasn’t really changed at all since Dick Bradsell’s original – Aussie bartenders are still shaking those same ingredients and serving it up in a coupe or martini glass. There are, though, about a million variations on the theme, and, considering the Espresso Martini is our unofficial national cocktail, we think they’re well worth exploring.
As we’ve already covered in our deep-dive on improving your Espresso Martini, the best variations come from tweaking one of the core ingredients. The cocktail is easily led into dessert territory by subbing out regular sugar syrup for a salted caramel syrup, giving you the salty-sweet combo of a Salted Caramel Espresso Martini. You can also upgrade the neutral-flavoured vodka for something a little more robust like rum – as in the Cherry Espresso Rumtini (which also adds a little honey and cherry juice).
The point is that as great as the classic Espresso Martini is, as long as it has good coffee at its core, you can feel free to play around with it, subbing ingredients here and there until you’re happy. After all, it’s the coffee that makes this cocktail a national treasure – the rest is just a delicious bonus.
