Pistachio Martini

Chocolate Martini

A Chocolate Martini is 45ml of vodka, 30ml of dark chocolate liqueur or dark crème de cacao and 15ml of single cream, shaken hard with ice for 10 to 12 seconds, double strained into a frozen martini glass and finished with shaved dark chocolate. About 2.3 UK units. It contains cream, so it is not for anyone avoiding milk. Only the glass makes it a martini. The Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails says the drink did not gain momentum until around 1995, at the height of the sweet Martini craze of the 1980s and 1990s. An older story has Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson mixing vodka, Kahlúa and chocolate syrup on the set of Giant in 1955; the Oxford Companion says the claim comes from Taylor’s 1987 diet book Elizabeth Takes Off, with no known corroborating document in the three decades between. Kept to these measures it is a dessert drink with some bitterness in it. The cream rounds the liqueur, and the cold keeps the sugar in check.

Espresso Martini

An Espresso Martini is 50ml of vodka, 30ml of Kahlúa, 10ml of sugar syrup and one freshly pulled espresso of about 30ml, shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled martini glass, with three coffee beans laid on the foam. About 2.5 UK units, and the caffeine of a single shot. The Oxford Companion says Dick Bradsell created it at the Soho Brasserie in London in 1983, for a famous model who asked for a drink to wake her up and then mess her up; he never said who she was. The measures are the IBA’s. Vodka gives strength and cold without flavour, so the coffee leads. The foam comes from the crema of a shot pulled moments before the shake, which is why the espresso goes in last.

White Russian

A White Russian is 50ml vodka and 25ml coffee liqueur stirred over one large cube in a rocks glass for 15 to 20 seconds, then 30ml of fresh single cream poured gently onto the surface from a spoon. Nothing else garnishes it: the cream marbling down through the dark liquid is the finish. About 2.5 UK units. It is the Black Russian with cream. The IBA lists it only as a note to that drink, which is 50ml vodka and 20ml coffee liqueur: float fresh cream on top and stir it in slowly. Our extra 5ml of liqueur holds the coffee against the cream. The Oxford Companion dates its final form and name to 1965, when Southern Comfort used it to promote its short-lived Coffee Southern. The Oxford Companion says that in the Coen Brothers’ cult film The Big Lebowski the White Russian is the Dude’s main source of sustenance, and that it has become something of a cult drink.

Amaretto Sour

An Amaretto Sour made the way Jeffrey Morgenthaler published it in 2012, as Difford’s Guide records his formula, is 45ml amaretto, 22.5ml cask-strength bourbon, 30ml fresh lemon juice, 5ml rich sugar syrup and an optional 15ml egg white. It is shaken without ice, then with it, and strained onto a single large ice cube in a rocks glass, then finished with a lemon peel and a cherry. The bourbon is why it works. Amaretto is sweet and, at Disaronno’s 28% ABV on Drinkfinder’s listing, too light to carry a sour alone; Morgenthaler’s point was that it needs help. A small measure of cask-strength bourbon adds strength, oak and spice while the almond stays in front. The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails says amaretto is generally made from apricot kernels, though it is commonly thought of as almond-flavoured; anyone with a nut allergy should read the label. The egg white is raw egg. A glass holds about 2.6 UK units, taking the cask-strength bourbon at our working figure of 60% ABV and the amaretto at 28%, as Drinkfinder lists Disaronno.