• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Umami Days

Umami Days

Meaty with a dash of veggies

  • Pick a meal
    • One Bowl Meals
    • Breakfast
    • Lunch / Dinner
      • Appetizers
      • Salads
      • Soups
      • Main Courses
      • Side Dishes
      • Sweets
    • Snacks
    • Drinks
      • Summer drinks
      • Cold weather drinks
      • Cocktail hour
  • Pick your protein
    • Chicken, duck & turkey
    • Meat
    • Seafood
    • Eggs
    • Mushrooms
    • Tofu
    • Vegetables
  • Pick your carb
    • Rice & grains
    • Noodles
    • Bread
  • Newsletter
  • Sidebar
    • Kitchen
    • Dining
    • Edible Garden
    • Food Tales
  • Newsletter sign-up!
  • Recipe index
    • By Meal
      • One Bowl Meals
      • Breakfast
      • Lunch / Dinner
        • Appetizers
        • Salads
        • Soups
        • Main Courses
        • Side Dishes
        • Sweets
      • Snacks
      • Drinks
        • Refreshing summer drinks
        • Cold weather drinks
        • Cocktail hour
    • By Main Protein
      • Chicken, duck & turkey
      • Meat
      • Seafood
      • Eggs
      • Mushrooms
      • Tofu
      • Vegetables
    • By Carb
      • Rice & grains
      • Noodles
      • Bread
  • Sidebar
    • Kitchen
    • Dining
    • Edible Garden
    • Food Tales
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Contact
Cold weather drinks Cocktail hour

Espresso martini

Published: 10.15.2022 » Last updated: 02.11.2023

Mix coffee with chocolate and you have mocha. Mix strong brewed coffee, coffee liqueur and chocolate liqueur and you get espresso martini. It will definitely warm you up.

Espresso martini

Strictly speaking, it is not a martini which by definition is a drink made with gin and vermouth. But the martini seems to have evolved over the years. We’ve been on a 007 marathon over the past days and there were films where James Bond ordered vodka martini. What’s the difference between gin and vodka anyway?

Gin

Historically, gin is a “clear alcoholic spirit distilled from grain or malt and flavoured with juniper berries”. The word “gin” itself is derived from genever which, in turn is derived from Old French genevre which is an alteration of Latin juniperus.

In the beginning, gin was a medicinal liquor rather than a recreational drink. It was first created by Benedictine monks in a monastery surrounded by juniper berries in Southern Italy.

As a medicinal herb, juniper had been an essential part of doctors’ kits for centuries: the Romans burned juniper branches for purification and medieval plague doctors stuffed the beaks of their ghoulish masks with juniper to protect them from the Black Death. Across Europe, apothecaries handed out juniper tonic wines for coughs, colds, pains, strains, ruptures and cramps. These were a popular cure-all.

The scandalous history of gin: the story behind everyone’s favourite spirit

But just like martini, gin has evolved over the years too. Next to juniper berries, gin today may be flavored with spices, flowers or fruits.

Vodka

Like gin, vodka was originally consumed for medicial purposes. Unlike gin, it did not originate in Italy. I’ve always thought that this distilled clear spirit was 100% Russian. The association between the country and the drink is so widespread that, in popular culture, Russians are often stereotyped as folks who drink nothing but vodka.

Just as an aside, and to illustrate the association, in Stranger Things, one of my favorite TV shows ever, a non-English speaking Russian scientist was taken by the protagonists, Hopper and Joyce, and he was quickly nicknamed Smirnoff.

As it turns out, vodka was produced in Russia, Poland and Sweden at around the same time. Records from the 15th century show that the the process of producing strong drinks was introduced to Poland by Arab or Italian merchants a century earlier.

Russia first produced vodka by distilling grapes. It was a flavorless clear drink with low alcohol content. Flavoring made it easier to drink as a medicine. I can’t find anything definitive on what was distilled in Poland and Sweden to produce the earliest vodka. In Sweden where vodka production did not really take off until centuries later, potato was distilled to make the drink.

So, should you really use vodka to make a martini? Like I mentioned earlier, there’s martini with gin and vermouth, and there’s vodka martini. This drink is essentially a vodka martini.

Espresso martini

Connie Veneracion
A drink shaken (sorry, 007 but this one isn't stirred) with ice. Despite being served cold, it will warm you up in no time. Definitely a cold weather drink.
Espresso martini
Print Pin Recipe
Prep Time 3 mins
Cook Time 0 mins
Total Time 3 mins
Course Drinks
Cuisine International
Servings 2 glasses

Equipment

  • Cocktail shaker

Ingredients
  

  • 3 oz Kahlua Coffee Liqueur
  • 3 oz vodka
  • 2 oz creme de cacao
  • 2 oz strong brewed coffee

Instructions
 

  • Pour all the ingredients in a shaker.
  • Add ice.
  • Shake to combine.
  • Pour into glasses and serve.
Print Pin Recipe
Keyword Cocktails, coffee, Kahlua

More Cold weather drinks

Dulce de leche macchiato

Dulce de leche macchiato

Coquito

Coquito

Layered cocktail drinks: absinthe B-55 (for fans of coffee and spice), soju and passionfruit cocktail (for Korean liquor buffs) and pineapple upside-down cake (for vodka devotees)

3 layered drinks for the discerning cocktail fan

Brain hemorrhage cocktail

Brain hemorrhage cocktail

Brandy Alexander

Brandy Alexander

Newsletter department

  • #18 Cooking for Lent
    03.23.2023
    A few readers have emailed asking me to post recipes for Lent, and I tell them there is NO need for NEW recipes. Instead, they should try digging into the seafood, mushrooms and tofu recipe archives.

Sidebar

Connie Veneracion, Chiang Mai, 2020

Hi, I’m Connie!

Welcome to Umami Days, a blog that advocates innovative home cooking for pleasurable everyday dining. No trendy diets, no food fads and definitely no ludicrous recipe names like crustless quiche, noodleless pho or chocolate lasagna.

  • About
  • Recipes
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Contact
Chicken, tomatoes and thyme in olive oil, with pot of thyme in background

Chicken, tomatoes and thyme in olive oil

Kung Pao tofu

10-minute Kung Pao tofu

Kung pao chicken

Kung pao chicken

Macaroni salad with ham and cheese, carrot, celery, crushed pineapple, pickle relish and mayo

Macaroni salad with ham and cheese

Udon and pork with chili peanut sauce garnished with scallions and sesame seeds

Udon and pork with chili peanut sauce

Potatoes and green beans salad

Umami Days is powered by Apple, Canon, coffee & one bowl meals · Copyright © 2023 Connie Veneracion · All Rights Reserved