The Espresso Martini: The Legendary Story Behind the World's Most Popular Cocktail

It starts with a request no bartender could refuse.

London, 1983. Soho Brasserie, Old Compton Street. A young model walks up to the bar, clocks the gleaming espresso machine sitting next to the spirits, and asks bartender Dick Bradsell for something that will "wake me up and f**k me up."

Bradsell — already one of the most influential bartenders in Britain — looked at the vodka in front of him, looked at the espresso machine beside him, and got to work. Vodka, fresh espresso, coffee liqueur, a touch of sugar syrup. Shaken hard over ice. He called it the Vodka Espresso. The model loved it. The rest, as they say, is cocktail history.

The drink's true creator passed away in 2016, never revealing the identity of the model who inspired it. He took that mystery to the grave. But the cocktail he created that night has gone on to become one of the most ordered drinks on the planet.

From Soho to the World

For years the Vodka Espresso was a London insider's drink — known in the bars where Bradsell worked but not much further. It changed names a few times along the way. When Bradsell moved to Match EC1 in the 1990s he began serving it in a V-shaped martini glass, and the name shifted to Espresso Martini simply because of the glass it was served in. Then in 1998, artist Damien Hirst opened his infamous Pharmacy bar in Notting Hill and hired Bradsell to run the cocktail programme. There, the drink was briefly renamed the Pharmaceutical Stimulant — a nod to Hirst's art world sensibilities and the drink's very literal effect.

But it was the Espresso Martini that stuck. And it was Australia — and Melbourne specifically — that turned it from a cocktail into a cultural institution.

Why Melbourne Made the Espresso Martini Famous

There is a reason the espresso martini is more popular in Australia than almost anywhere else on earth. Bradsell's own daughter Bea, who has spent years championing her father's legacy, credits Australian third wave coffee culture with the drink's global rise. Melbourne has long been considered one of the great coffee cities in the world — a city with genuine reverence for espresso, for craft, and for doing things properly. When those values collided with a cocktail built around coffee, something clicked.

Today the espresso martini is a staple of Melbourne bar menus from Fitzroy to the CBD. It is ordered at weddings, birthdays, work functions and late-night sessions. It has survived trend cycles, bartender eye-rolls and every attempt to call it dated. It keeps coming back because it is, simply, a perfect drink.

The Perfect Espresso Martini at Home

The classic recipe has barely changed since 1983:

• 30ml Stache House Cold Brew Coffee Liqueur
• 30ml cold brew coffee
• 30ml vodka
• Ice

Combine in a shaker. Shake hard for 15 seconds. Strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with three coffee beans — a nod to the Italian tradition of serving sambuca con la mosca, with the beans representing health, wealth and happiness.

The secret to the perfect espresso martini is the quality of two things: the coffee and the liqueur. At Stache House we use real cold brew coffee and Australian cane sugar to make a liqueur crafted specifically for this drink. No artificial flavours. No shortcuts. Just the same commitment to quality that Dick Bradsell brought to that bar in Soho forty years ago.

Some things are worth doing properly.

Ready to make it at home? Shop Stache House Cold Brew Coffee Liqueur — crafted in Melbourne, made for this drink.