May 13 is World Cocktail Day, which celebrates the anniversary of the first-ever publication of the definition of “cocktail” in 1806, as “a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters.” Fair enough!
In 2025, one of the most popular cocktails is the espresso martini, so to celebrate World Cocktail Day, we at Penn Press are sharing our own espresso martini recipe, paired with some contextualizing thoughts and facts from Michelle Craig McDonald, the Librarian/Director of the Library and Museum at the American Philosophical Society, and author of Coffee Nation: How One Commodity Transformed the Early United States, a new book that illuminates how coffee tied the economic future of the early United States to the wider Atlantic world.
Enjoy the recipe below, and as you sip your freshly made espresso martini, read on to learn more about Coffee Nation and about the history behind the cultural ubiquity of coffee that led to the drink that is now in your hand.
Ingredients
- 1 oz. room-temperature espresso or bottled cold brew coffee (note: if using cold brew concentrate, dilute or adjust portion according to your own preferred strength)
- 2 oz. vodka
- 1 oz. coffee liqueur
- 1/4 to 1/2 oz. simple syrup (to taste)
- a small pinch of salt (yes, really!)
- coffee beans for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Combine espresso/cold brew, vodka, coffee liqueur, simple syrup, and salt in a cocktail shaker with enough ice to fill the shaker halfway.
- Shake for 15-20 seconds.
- Pour through a strainer into a chilled martini glass or coupe glass.
- Garnish decoratively with three coffee beans, if you so choose.
The espresso martini is less than 50 years old, and was first concocted in a London tavern to combine the relaxing effects of alcohol with the heady rush of coffee. But adding flavorings to coffee is much older. One of the earliest European records about coffee-drinking appeared in 1580, describing a thick and muddy beverage, sometimes blended with cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, and star anise. Think of it as a sixteenth-century version of today’s chai latte. As interest in the beverage grew, Europeans experimented with coffee-farming in the East Indies and later in the Caribbean, where it became a staple crop grown by enslaved labor. As beans became more available, references to drinking coffee, often mixed with milk, sugar, or honey, appeared in correspondence on both sides of the Atlantic. But not everyone was a fan. The 1674 Women’s Petition Against Coffee decried “the excessive use of that drying, enfeebling liquor,” where husbands “trifle away their time, scald their Chops, and spend their Money, all for a little base, black, thick, nasty bitter, stinking nauseous Puddle water.”
The caffeine habit proved hard to break, however, and by the early eighteenth century, so many men and women drank coffee throughout Europe and the Americas that hundreds of publications gave advice on the best ways to prepare and serve it. While spices and sweeteners remained popular, a range of other additives were suggested that would raise eyebrows today. Butter and oil were recommended during the roasting process, and eggshells and isinglass (a gelatin derived from fish bladders) were thought to “clarify” the brew.
Meanwhile, consumer practices between countries emerged that persist to this day. The Marquis de Chastellux, a French officer who fought for the patriot cause during the American Revolution, noted North Americans’ deep commitment to their coffee—they enjoyed enjoy it morning, noon, and night—but concluded that it took three cups of American coffee to match one of the French brew.
I hope this brief history has whetted your appetite for a cup of coffee, or even an espresso martini. And if you want to learn more about the history of a beverage now enjoyed around the world, I invite you to read my Coffee Nation: How One Commodity Transformed the Early United States.
Cheers!
Header photo by Krists Luhaers on Unsplash
