Dev had an espresso machine behind his bar and decided to tweak a recipe using fresh espresso instead of liqueur, and that's when this version was born! We have both been making it this way ever since.' After traveling at least twice a year to Reyka's distillery in Iceland for the last few years, the recipe has become part of many bar menus there (it should be noted that the city is fairly small!), which is how I find myself sipping on the most exquisite and refreshing Espresso Martini I have ever had, a recipe that Schneider convinces me I can make at home. scene and fresh ingredients were not a common thing behind the bar. 'Dev was taught by Tim Hedstrom back in 1986, when the Espresso Martini was just getting into the L.A. 'I was taught this recipe when I was working at Employees Only by the one and only Dev Johnson,' he tells me.

This recipe has traveled halfway across the Atlantic Ocean, and Trevor Schneider, Reyka Vodka brand ambassador, is responsible. 'It's an Employees Only recipe,' one of the bartenders states to another patron, rubbing his wrists following the vigorous shaking, referring to one of the most esteemed cocktails bars in New York City, that has since opened locations in Miami, Los Angeles, Singapore, Hong Kong, and more. It was, simply put, delicious.įast-forward to last month, and I was in Reykjavik, Iceland, in the trendy cocktail bar-restaurant Apotek where I saw two bartenders furiously shake several Espresso Martini-filled shakers until a beautiful ombré formed in the coupe glass, complete with a thick layer of foam on top. But then, something about the freshness of the coffee, combined with a clean vodka profile, prompted a Proustian memory that took me back to the time I used to order Appletinis and Cosmos when I first moved to New York-but, like, with less sugar and no Ocean Spray. Granted over the past few months, I have found myself drinking any cocktail that the restaurant's beverage director Rael Petit puts out, but, still, it was an unexpected order, and felt like a flashback to an earlier era. Late this summer, I found myself asking the same question to one of my friends as we ordered Espresso Martinis at the Williamsburg Hotel restaurant in Brooklyn. Equally satisfied Carrie replies, 'Because everyone else started.' 'Why did we ever stop drinking these?' asks Miranda after taking a sip of a Cosmopolitan at the end of the Sex and the City movie. Check in every week to see what things we can't wait to share with you. And because we consider our readers to be like friends, we gather together all our best finds in our Don't Sleep On This series.

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Best expresso martini recipe