How to Make the World's Best Amarula Espresso Martini (Strong Enough to Eskom You)

Every now and then someone asks me for a coffee recipe that isn't meant to wake you up gently. Fair enough. Here's one that does the opposite of gently: a proper espresso martini, made with Bliksem Brew and Amarula, which felt like the right call the second I remembered bliksem means lightning back home. This isn't a coffee that whispers good morning. It's one that eskoms you, lights out, no warning, questionable decisions to follow.

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A quick word on where this drink actually comes from

The espresso martini isn't some TikTok invention, it goes back to 1980s London, where legendary bartender Dick Bradsell built it for a model who apparently wanted something that would wake her up and mess her up in one glass. Forty-odd years later it's still doing exactly that job, and it remains one of the only cocktails where ordering a second round is basically a caffeine decision as much as a drinking one. Swapping in Amarula just makes it properly ours.

What you'll need

This makes one proper cocktail. Double it if you're making a jug for friends, though I'd still shake each round individually rather than batching it, the shake is doing more work here than people realise.

• 50ml vodka
• 40ml Amarula cream liqueur
• 30ml freshly brewed Bliksem Brew espresso, cooled for a couple of minutes
• A handful of ice
• 3 coffee beans, for garnish

How to make it

Brew your shot first and give it a couple of minutes to cool. Hot coffee straight into a shaker full of ice just waters everything down fast. A moka pot or AeroPress gets you close enough to real espresso for this, you don't need a machine.

Once it's cooled slightly, add the vodka, Amarula and espresso to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake it hard, properly hard, for a good fifteen seconds. This isn't optional theatre, the vigorous shake is what pulls the crema-like foam up out of the coffee and gives you that classic ring of bubbles on top, and it also helps the Amarula's cream properly emulsify rather than sitting separate. A weak shake gives you a flat, sad martini.

Double strain into a chilled martini or coupe glass, so you catch the ice shards as well as the coffee grounds. Drop three coffee beans on top of the foam. Tradition says they represent health, wealth and happiness, though mostly they just look proper.

Why Amarula makes sense here

Amarula is made from the fruit of the marula tree, native to southern Africa, the same fruit that elephants famously go looking for once it's fallen and started to ferment on the ground. It's basically the origin story behind every elephant on an Amarula bottle you've ever seen, and it happens to line up rather nicely with the elephant that's already approved our own coffee on this site. Amarula brings a caramel, marula-fruit creaminess that a straight coffee liqueur doesn't have, so this version comes out rounder and a little more South African than the original, in the best way.

Why Bliksem Brew specifically

A mellow, chocolatey bean gets flattened fast once you've added vodka and a rich cream liqueur into the mix, there's nothing left to taste. Bliksem Brew's brightness, that redcurrant and orange zest edge, is exactly the kind of thing that cuts through Amarula's sweetness instead of disappearing under it. That contrast is really the whole point of picking a single origin for this rather than whatever's cheapest and closest to hand.

A word of actual advice, not just banter

This is a genuinely strong drink in two directions at once, caffeine and alcohol, and they don't cancel each other out the way people sometimes assume. You won't necessarily feel drunk even after a few, which is exactly how people end up having more than they meant to. Have it earlier in the evening rather than as a nightcap unless you enjoy staring at the ceiling at 2am, and know your limits same as with anything else.

Want to actually make one properly? Grab a bag of Bliksem Brew, or pick up the bundle if you want Lekker Brew on hand for the mornings after.