Chocolate Espresso Martini Recipe

Espresso martinis are one of the most flavored and recently trendy cocktails on the menu at bars across the US. The originally Italian drink has gained popularity with coffee lovers and bartenders alike. Perfect for an after dinner aperitif or simply to get you some get up and go for your night out, the Espresso Martini is here to stay. 

Unsurprisingly, bars have already begun to make their own variations on the original Espresso Martini such as this Chocolate Espresso Martini Recipe. We have provided some simple and more complex ways to make this variation of a classic cocktail.

What Goes Into a Chocolate Espresso Martini

The Coffee

There’s two approaches to the coffee, specifically espresso, element of the cocktail. You can either go for proper espresso (this is best), or instant espresso powder, which will create a lower quality cocktail but will ultimately be quicker and more practical for the home bartender.

Or, if you prefer quality over quantity, you could go for the best option: a double espresso shot. If you want to hack this a little bit, and the idea of instant coffee doesn’t appeal to you, you could go for your favourite brand of cold brew coffee.

Cold brew coffee is available everywhere now, as it is as trendy as espresso martinis, and makes it super easy for you to make this cocktail at home with low effort but successful results.

Most people at home opt to make a cafetiere of espresso coffee in preparation and then let the coffee cool in the fridge ready for serving, although there is nothing stopping you having it hot like a Hot Toddy (see also: Best Whiskey For Hot Toddy).

The Alcohol Components

Against what the title suggests, there are actually quite a few liquor combinations you can go for with the espresso martini. Once you have the coffee base you can go wild with your choices in reality.

Most people actually go for a shot of vodka and a shot of coffee liqueur. Our suggestion is a shot of vanilla vodka with a shot of Kahlua or Tia Maria (or your favourite brand) for the best combination of vanilla, coffee, and chocolate! Normal vodka would work too, but the vanilla vodka adds an extra dimension to the chocolate element of this cocktail. If you only have normal vodka you can add a small drop of vanilla essence to your shot.

Some other people go crazy with their alcohol choice on this, making their espresso martini a little different to everyone else’s. Jagermeister is a popular but left of field choice, but it actually works really well with the coffee and provides herbal and aniseed notes that you won’t get from any other liqueur.

Similarly, using Baileys will give you added cream and would work perfectly with this specific chocolate cocktail, as well as enhancing the natural coffee flavors. Needless to say, just go full whisky and you have yourself an Irish Coffee!

The Chocolate

There’s a few ways you can manipulate chocolate into this recipe. One chocolate first method is to opt for a chocolate liqueur which will give you a certain alcoholic twist on the chocolate element of the cocktail.

One of our favorite chocolate liqueurs is the Godiva chocolate liqueur which comes in white chocolate, milk chocolate, and dark chocolate varieties meaning you can pimp your cocktail how you like with this method. Chocolate liqueur also allows you to make this cocktail easily at home.

Creme de cacao comes from our latino friends and is a great addition to any drinks cabinet. It is another great way to get chocolate into this cocktail, and also endows the affair with some nutty and caramel notes that other liqueurs wont offer.

Another method that is helpful to the home bartender is simply using real chocolate and shaving it onto the top of the cocktail. This can be on the more subtle side, but some people find there is a lot going on in the cocktail anyway and only a hint of chocolate is needed to change the whole cocktail.

If you want to change it up a bit, get a segment of Terry’s Chocolate Orange and grate it onto the top of the cocktail with a microplane and your chocolate espresso martini has now become an orange chocolate espresso martini.

Our Final Say

So now you know the basics, get out there and start experimenting with your own chocolate espresso martini. The cocktail shouldn’t be hard to make and is infinitely customizable, it helps you understand how to utilise non-conventional ingredients in your bar such as coffee and chocolate, rather than your bog standard vodka and orange juice cocktail. It’s a great way to get into the world of cocktail making and is a great blank canvas to get creative with.