Chocolate & Espresso Martinis

Asked by Lea Werner. Answered on 31st December 2011

Full question

I live in New Zealand and on a recent Nigella cooking programme she made a Chocolate Martini. I wasn't able to get the specific ingredients or amounts and I would love to duplicate this drink. I've searched your site but it doesn't come up with any listig for a Chocolate Martini. Thanks for your help. Kind Regards, Lea Werner.

Please could you specify the final ingredient in Nigella's Espresso Martini which she makes on her TV show? She says equal parts of toffee liqueur, coffee liqueur, espresso and then she adds one more spirit which looks like vodka but she didn't say (or is it Cinzano - that's how I make martini). Many thanks for your help, Hogelstick.

Our answer

Nigella's Chocolate Martini is a mixture of vodka, white creme de cacao and dry vermouth and the recipe can be found on p444 of Kitchen. The ingredients are shaken together briefly over ice then served in a martini glass with a cocoa-dusted rim. The white creme de cacao may be the most difficult ingredient to source. The most popular brands are De Kuyper and Bols, though the French producer Briottet is also very good if you can find it. If you really can't get the white creme de cacao then you could try using a vanilla flavoured vodka instead. It won't be exactly the same but white creme de cacao has a fairly mild chocolate flavour and slight vanilla note.

The Espresso Martini can be found on p250 of Nigella's book Christmas. It is a mixture of cool espresso coffee, coffee liqueur, caramel vodka or butterscotch schnapps and regular vodka. Purists may argue that strictly speaking it isn't a martini as it doesn't contain any vermouth but now the term martini is often used to describe a cocktail made from a mixture of spirits. The coffee should be properly cold so if possible brew it the day before then pour into a jug and leave in the fridge overnight.