Cold-Shaken Espresso Martini with a Thick Coffee Crema

By Sprig Originals ✓ · cooked up in Sprig

The espresso martini lives or dies by its foam — that pale, dense cap that holds three coffee beans without sinking. This version builds it the way good cocktail bars do: genuinely fresh espresso chilled fast, a homemade vanilla-demerara syrup instead of raw sugar bite, and a hard 15-second shake with cold, dry ice cubes. Double-strained into a frozen glass, it comes out silky, bracingly cold and bittersweet rather than dessert-sweet.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup demerara or turbinado sugar
• 3 tablespoons water
• 1/2 vanilla bean, split, or 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

• 2 oz freshly brewed espresso (2 double shots), chilled
• 3 oz good vodka, kept in the freezer
• 1 oz coffee liqueur
• 1/2 oz vanilla-demerara syrup, plus more to taste
• 1 pinch flaky salt (optional, sharpens the coffee)
• 2 cups large, hard ice cubes

• 6 whole coffee beans
• grated dark chocolate or orange zest (optional)

Instructions

1. Put two coupe or martini glasses in the freezer, along with the vodka if it isn't already there. Cold glassware is the difference between a crema that lasts five minutes and one that collapses in thirty seconds.
2. Make the syrup: combine the demerara sugar and water in a small saucepan, scrape in the vanilla seeds and drop in the pod. Warm over medium heat, stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes — just until the sugar fully dissolves and the mixture is glossy. Do not let it boil down. Cool, remove the pod, and refrigerate. It keeps 3 weeks.
3. Brew 2 oz (60 ml) of espresso — two double shots pulled back to back, or a strong moka pot or AeroPress brew. Immediately pour it into a small metal measuring cup or bowl and set it in a bath of ice water, stirring occasionally, for 3 to 4 minutes until it is cold to the touch. Hot espresso melts your ice and thins the drink.
4. Fill a cocktail shaker two-thirds full with large, hard ice cubes straight from the freezer (wet, half-melted ice will overdilute). Add the chilled espresso, vodka, coffee liqueur, 1/2 oz vanilla-demerara syrup and the pinch of salt if using.
5. Seal and shake hard for a full 15 seconds — count it. You want the shaker painfully frosted and the sound to shift from rattling to a dull slosh as the ice breaks down and whips air into the coffee oils.
6. Set a fine-mesh strainer over your frozen glasses and pour through it (double-straining catches ice shards so the foam stays smooth). Divide evenly between both glasses and let them sit undisturbed for 30 seconds — the crema will separate into a distinct pale layer.
7. Float 3 coffee beans on each drink and add a whisper of grated dark chocolate or a twist of orange zest if you like. Serve immediately, while the glass is still fogged.

Chef's tips

Nutrition (per serving, estimated)

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