The Espresso Martini has quietly become the most-ordered cocktail in the Klang Valley over the past three years. It is the kind of drink that looks simple but reveals a lot about a bar. Knowing what to look for changes the experience: you stop ordering "an espresso martini" and start ordering one you can actually tell is good. This page is the working brief for that shift.
The story behind it
The Espresso Martini was invented at the Soho Brasserie in London in 1983 by Dick Bradsell. A young model walked up to the bar and asked for "something that will wake me up and then mess me up." Bradsell built the drink on the spot: vodka, fresh espresso, coffee liqueur, sugar. The original name was the Vodka Espresso. It rebranded as the Espresso Martini in the 1990s and went global from there.
Bradsell himself died in 2016. His cocktails (the Espresso Martini, the Bramble, the Treacle, the Russian Spring Punch) became the foundation of the British craft-cocktail revival. The Espresso Martini's modern surge started around 2018 when a generation of bartenders re-discovered the original recipe and treated it with the respect it deserves rather than the casual treatment it had received through the 2000s.
Today the drink is on almost every cocktail bar menu in KL and PJ, and the proper version is the one Bradsell would have recognised. The decline of the drink between roughly 1995 and 2015 was largely a decline in espresso quality: bars using pre-made espresso concentrate, instant coffee, or coffee-flavoured syrups produced drinks that bore the name but not the structure. The current revival is essentially a return to fresh espresso.
The four things that make it proper
A real Espresso Martini depends on four things, all of them small, all of them measurable on the first sip.
1. The espresso is fresh and hot. Pulled into the shaker within 60 seconds of the build. Hot espresso aerates into the foam during the shake. Cold espresso (even good cold espresso) cannot generate the same foam structure. Pre-made cold espresso concentrate works for some drinks but not this one. The temperature of the espresso going into the shake is the single largest determinant of foam quality.
2. The shake is hard, fast, and cold. 12-15 seconds at full speed, with a tin chilled in the freezer if possible. The shake whips the espresso oils into a stable emulsion. A half-hearted shake produces a half-hearted foam. Watch the bartender's shoulder; if it is not moving, the shake is not hard enough.
3. The sweetener is balanced against the espresso bitterness. A standard espresso pull bitters out at a specific point. The drink's sugar (typically demerara syrup, sometimes coffee liqueur doubling as the sweetener) has to land just under that bitterness. Too sweet and the drink tastes like a coffee dessert. Too dry and the bitterness fights you. The bartender's call here is the most personal part of the spec; different espressos need different sugar levels.
4. The foam holds. A proper Espresso Martini lands with a 5-8mm crema-coloured foam top that holds for the first 2-3 minutes. Three coffee beans floated dead-centre on the foam (some bars use cocoa nibs, equally good). The foam is structural; it carries the aroma to the nose with every sip. If the foam is gone by the second sip, the emulsion was wrong.
How to read whether a bar has it right
Three signals you can check before the first sip:
Time to delivery. A properly built Espresso Martini takes 90 seconds from order. If the drink lands in 30 seconds, it was pre-batched. Pre-batched can be good if the bar holds it cold and re-shakes; usually it is not good.
The foam height. If the foam is flat (less than 3mm), the shake was short or the espresso was cold. If the foam is loose and breaks apart within a minute, the emulsion did not form. A proper foam looks like a thin layer of crema sitting cleanly on top of the dark drink.
The temperature. A proper Espresso Martini lands close to freezing. The hot espresso has been shaken into ice and the integration drops the drink to bar-cold within the shake. If the drink feels lukewarm, the shake was too short or the espresso did not integrate. The lukewarm version separates fast.
Our build
Both Dissolved Solids and Soluble Solids pour Espresso Martinis built to order:
- Vodka 50ml (we use a soft wheat-based vodka so the espresso character carries)
- Fresh-pulled espresso, single shot 30ml (made within 30 seconds of the shake)
- Coffee liqueur 15ml
- Demerara syrup 5-10ml (we adjust on the day based on the espresso pour)
- Hard shake, 12 seconds, in a tin that has been sitting in our freezer
- Double-strain into a chilled coupe
- Garnish: three coffee beans, centred
Priced at RM 38-42 at both outlets. Full recipe and notes here.
The single-origin bean choice rotates. We work with a small KL roaster and the bean changes each season. The change in the bean shifts the drink slightly: a more chocolate-heavy roast produces a fuller, more dessert-adjacent drink; a brighter, more acidic bean produces a more lifted, more aromatic drink. Ask the bartender what bean is in the shaker.
The Malaysian kopi version
Malaysian local-coffee tradition produces stronger, more chocolate-heavy coffee than Italian espresso. The traditional kopi-O (black coffee, no milk) brewed in a kopitiam sock filter has a rounder body, more roasted-caramel character, and a different bitterness curve than espresso. Substituted into the Espresso Martini structure, it produces a distinctly different drink.
The Malaysian kopi-O bean is typically roasted darker and with margarine and sugar (the traditional Hainanese roasting method). This produces a deeper, more burnt-sugar character than the lighter modern espresso roasts. The brewing method also matters: the sock-filter produces a cleaner, less crema-led extraction than an espresso machine.
We pour a Kopi Sour that uses cold-brewed kopi-O instead of espresso, gula melaka instead of demerara, and whisky or aged rum instead of vodka. The result drinks fuller, more roasted, more local. The egg white in the Kopi Sour also gives the drink a thicker, more sour-style foam than the Espresso Martini's espresso-oil foam.
Kopi Sour recipe. If you want a coffee cocktail that tastes specifically Malaysian, this is the order.
Variations worth knowing
Vegan Espresso Martini: swap demerara syrup for agave or maple. The drink reads identically. Most coffee liqueurs are already vegan.
Mezcal Espresso Martini: swap half the vodka for mezcal. The smoke layered with coffee produces a distinctive flavour. A cult variation in international cocktail-bar circles; gaining traction in KL.
Affogato Cocktail: espresso poured over vanilla gelato with a hit of Frangelico or Amaretto. Dessert-adjacent. Some bars serve this as the after-dinner alternative to the Espresso Martini.
Kopi Negroni: Negroni built normally with a barspoon of cold kopi-O added before stirring. Our local twist on a different classic. Recipe.
Tonka Espresso Martini: demerara replaced by tonka-bean syrup. Adds a hay-vanilla complexity. Worth ordering once at any bar that lists it.
White Espresso Martini: the same drink built with white chocolate liqueur in place of coffee liqueur. Cream-coloured rather than dark. Reads as a different drink entirely; cult favourite for the chocolate-led palate.
Salted Espresso Martini: the same drink with a small pinch of fine salt added before the shake. The salt sharpens the bitterness and reduces the perceived sweetness. Restaurant-driven variation.
Frangelico Espresso Martini: swap half the coffee liqueur for Frangelico. Adds hazelnut depth.
Reverse Espresso Martini: coffee-liqueur-led rather than vodka-led. Sweeter, more dessert. Good for the after-dinner crowd that wants something genuinely indulgent.
The KL Espresso Martini landscape
Most KL cocktail bars in 2026 pour a competent Espresso Martini. The drink has become a base-line capability; bars that cannot make one well are rare. The variation across the city is in the small things: the bean choice, the sugar level, the shake intensity, the speed of delivery.
The bars worth seeking out for this drink specifically are the ones that pull single-origin espresso (not generic blended) and rotate their bean choice seasonally. A small handful of bars in TTDI, Bangsar, and the older Bukit Bintang shoplot district treat the Espresso Martini as a chef-driven dish rather than a menu item, with the bean and sugar adjusted weekly.
For the Malaysian-kopi version, the bars to watch are those with active kopitiam relationships, where the kopi-O comes from a specific Hainanese roaster rather than a generic supplier. We work with one such roaster; the drink is more specific because of it.
What to skip
Pre-batched bottled Espresso Martinis at convenience stores. Coffee-flavoured syrups in place of real coffee liqueur. Drinks labelled "espresso-flavoured" rather than "espresso". Bars where the espresso machine is purely decorative.
A real Espresso Martini takes 90 seconds and uses 30ml of fresh-pulled espresso. If a bar cannot or will not pull espresso to order, the drink will not land properly. Order something else and let the bar do what it does well.
The evening fit
The Espresso Martini fits the evening best in two slots. First, as the after-dinner caffeine reset, around 9pm-10pm, when the energy is dropping and the next round is still ahead. Second, as the nightcap, around 11pm-midnight, when the drink is genuinely a dessert in a glass and there is no further round.
What does not work: the Espresso Martini as the opening drink. The caffeine and sugar both fight the palate-priming role that the first drink should play. Save it for later.
What our two bars offer for this drink
Both outlets pour the Espresso Martini to the spec above. The difference between them is small. Dissolved Solids in Damansara Kim has the slightly larger espresso machine and runs the drink as part of the printed menu. Soluble Solids in SS2 builds it as part of the bespoke-build format, so the spec can shift slightly to fit your palate (drier, sweeter, more or less coffee-forward) on request.
For the Kopi Sour, either bar works equally well. The drink is a house standard and the recipe is stable.