Espresso Martini Day

Espresso Martini Day  is celebrated every year on March 15. The day honors one of the most iconic cocktails of the modern era, a drink that has earned its place on bar menus worldwide.

The espresso martini has a glamorous and contested origin. Famous London bartender Dick Bradsell is widely credited with creating the drink in the late 1980s, most commonly said to be at Fred’s Club, though his own family has suggested it was born at the Soho Brasserie.

The story goes that a young model walked up to the bar and asked for a drink that would “wake me up, and then f–k me up.” Bradsell reached for fresh espresso, vodka, coffee liqueur, and sugar syrup. Whoever the mystery guest was, she never came forward, and Bradsell never told. He originally called the drink the Vodka Espresso, and it went through at least one other name before the world settled on espresso martini.

Three coffee beans and what they mean

The espresso martini is traditionally garnished with exactly three coffee beans, each said to represent health, wealth, and happiness.

The tradition wasn’t invented for the drink itself. According to Bea Bradsell, her father borrowed the idea directly from the Italian custom of serving Sambuca with three coffee beans, known in Italy as con la mosca, meaning with the fly.

Bradsell did not include the three beans when he first created the drink. The garnish was added later, as the espresso martini gained global popularity in the late 1990s.

It’s not actually a martini

The espresso martini is, technically speaking, not a martini at all. A traditional martini contains gin and vermouth, neither of which appear in this drink.

It picked up the martini name simply because of the V-shaped glass it was served in, at a time when that silhouette alone was enough to earn a drink the label. It was an era of French Martinis, Appletinis, Pornstar Martinis, and Lychee Martinis — anything served in that glass was a martini. The name stuck, and nobody has complained since.