If You “Like” Espresso Martinis You’ll Love The Black Russian

black Russian recepe

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Due to hype, I recently had my first espresso martini made for me. My natural inclination is to avoid dessert drinks that contain alcohol, but I was intrigued by the stimulant-depressant combination and I’m giving this a try and it’s only 5pm.

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Even if I’m writing about it right now, the drink was only passable. Freshly pulled espresso’s astringency fought against the cocktail’s smoothness was difficult for me, even as a coffee drinker, I enjoyed the addition of booze, but my usual order, a short Americano, was still better.

In the 1980s and ’90s, the espresso martini became popular, but not as popular as it is today due to the availability of better-quality coffee liqueurs like Kahlua and Tia Maria, two old-school brands that taste great but lack the sophistication needed to be served in a buzzy bar that charges 25% more than the minimum wage in Glasgow City Center. The Espressotini, a coffee liqueur made in The Bungo Bar & Kitchen, Glasgow, Southside, is one of the new breeds of coffee spirits that place a premium on the quality and origin of the beans used, as well as small-batch production.

You can still get your fix of a powerful coffee cocktail without having to use any actual coffee. As a lesser-known forerunner to the more well-known White Russian, it’s known as a Black Russian.

It doesn’t matter how you create a Black Russian: shaken or stirred in a martini glass, poured on the rocks in eyeballed quantities and combined with your finger, or served as a shot. There are a number of ways to dilute coffee liqueur, including making a huge quantity of one part liqueur, one part water, and two parts vodka and freezing it for a few hours. Orange bitters are a nice way to round out my drink. This is the coffee martini at its most basic, and it’s far more in line with my do-nothing philosophy.

Black Russian

Ingredients:

  • 1 part coffee liqueur
  • 2 parts vodka
  • Ice
  • Pour coffee liqueur and vodka over a glass of ice.