Nordic Espresso Martini

Aquavit lends a caraway-spiced, aromatic dimension to the espresso martini. Bold, caffeinated, and deeply satisfying.

The Nordic Espresso Martini transposes Dick Bradsell's 1980s London creation into a Scandinavian context by replacing the original's vodka with aquavit. Bradsell — who died in 2016 after a career that defined modern London bartending — created the original at the Soho Brasserie on Old Compton Street in the mid-1980s, improvising for a young model who asked for a drink that would wake her up and mess her up. The original formula was vodka, fresh espresso, coffee liqueur, and sugar syrup. Aquavit's substitution is logical for a specific reason: the caraway that defines Scandinavian aquavit has an aromatic relationship with coffee that is well-established in the region's own food culture. Scandinavian pastries — Norwegian cardamom buns, Danish wienerbrød, Swedish semla — consistently pair warming spices with coffee, and the caraway's earthy, slightly anise-adjacent character bridges the same gap between grain and roast that cardamom does in Turkish and Nordic coffee traditions. The aquavit's spirit backbone, typically bottled at 40-45% ABV, provides the same structural function as vodka in the original recipe. Aged Norwegian aquavit, whose barrel character contributes vanilla and caramel notes from oak, can add additional depth to the coffee and sugar elements, while unaged Swedish or Danish expressions maintain the cleaner, more botanical profile of the classic Espresso Martini framework.