Espresso Martini

 

Story

The espresso martini was first devised in the late 1980’s.  The commonly-accepted claim is that bartender Dick Bradsell made it up on the spot when a model walked into the bar and asked for something that would “wake me up and then f*** me up”.  The drink came back into vogue in the early 2020s.  Apparently bartenders hate making it because of the time and effort involved to brew the espresso. There are a LOT of versions of this cocktail out there, each with a different spec.

Lauren Paylor, bartender and winner of Netflix’s “Drink Masters” competition, appeared on the Cocktail College podcast and pitched her version of the espresso martini, which for ease of prep and consistency relies on coffee liqueur rather than brewed coffee.  It tastes great, but I couldn’t get it to foam despite shaking it like crazy.  Aquafaba powder (dehydrated chickpea liquid) solved that problem.  It’s colorless and tasteless but adds foam and a silky mouthfeel. I tried to simplify things by adding the powder directly to the shaker, but no dice -- you have to rehydrate it first to get any effect. Cheers!

Recipe

Espresso martini
2 oz vodka (such as Ketel One)
0.5 oz Mr. Black coffee liqueur
0.5 oz simple syrup
0.5 teaspoons aquafaba powder dissolved in 2 Tbsp hot water (or 1 oz chickpea liquid)
-dissolve aquafaba powder in hot water by stirring.  Cool in fridge for a few minutes.
-put aquafaba and other 3 ingredients in cocktail shaker with ice.  Shake like crazy.
-double strain into chilled coupe or martini glass.

Guatemalan Square

 Story
The classic Vieux Carre (“old square” in French) cocktail is one of my favorites.  Sother Teague created this variation by using aged rum instead of cognac and dry curaçao in place of the Benedictine.  These changes push the flavor in a vanilla and orange direction while maintaining the foundation of the original drink.  The recipe calls for it to be served up in a cocktail glass but I could easily see this in a rocks glass over ice as well.  

Recipe
4 dashes Angostura bitters
4 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
0.25 oz Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao (or Cointreau)
0.5 oz Carpano Antica sweet vermouth
0.5 oz Rittenhouse Rye
1.0 oz aged rum
-stir all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice until chilled.
-strain into chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with orange twist.

Rye-Tai

Story

There are a lot of cocktails online that call themselves "Rye Tai".  It will surprise no one that I like Sother Teague's version.  This Rye-Tai is obviously inspired by the classic Mai-Tai, with rye taking the place of rum.  The Mai-Tai combines different rum types to get the advantages of each, and the same trick is used here.  The recipe uses Rittenhouse Rye and Old Overholt rye, but I used Russell’s 6-year in place of the latter.
The cocktail has the citrus sparkle like a margarita but with a silkier mouthfeel from the orgeat and the spice from the rye.  I had read about orgeat, which is a sweet syrup made from almonds, sugar, and a little orange blossom water, but this is the first cocktail in which I tried it.  Big fan.  You can make orgeat at home, but it looks like quite a process so I went with the store-bought stuff.

Recipe

1 oz fresh lime juice
1 oz Rittenhouse Rye
1 oz Old Overholt Rye (or Russell’s 6-year)
0.5 oz orgeat
0.5 oz cointreau
-Add all ingredients to shaker.

-Whip shake with a small handful of cracked or pebble ice. Dirty pour into rocks glass over crushed or pebble ice. Garnish with a spent lime half.  I drink it with a straw.

Whip shake: The whip shake is a technique used to chill and aerate a drink, often used in tiki-style cocktails.  To do it, just add the ingredients to a cocktail shaker with a small amount of ice and shake it until the ice completely melts.  It’s easy to tell when this happens because it stops smacking against the inside of the shaker.

Dirty pour: In contrast to the usual process of straining a shaken drink while pouring it into the glass, the dirty pour is just dumping the contents of the shaker directly into the glass.  Also known as a party pour or just dumping.