"Wake me up and then f**k me up" - The Origins of the Espresso Martini

The Espresso Martini is certainly a familiar popular cocktail around the globe but it's intriguing history is much less well-known. The origin of the Espresso Martini stems back to a London bar in the 1980's in the midst of a cocktail revival era.

The original name of the Espresso Martini was actually the Vodka Martini. In the 1980's-90's in London a popular bartender named Dick Bradsell contributed to the revival of the cocktail scene. Bradsell claims that he created the Vodka Martini when a young model ordered a drink from the bar by asking for something to "wake me up and then f**k me up".

Bradsell worked at Soho Brasserie in London right next to the coffee machine and coffee was very much on his mind. At the time there was a massive craze around vodka and a trend towards vodka cocktails. It was then that Bradsell invented the Vodka Martini by mixing an espresso shot, vodka, sugar syrup and coffee liqueur. Smooth, stimulative and intoxicating - exactly what the model wanted.

The name of the model with the unique ordering style was never actually disclosed by Bradsell but it is widely believed that it was the now famous model and businesswoman, Kate Moss. Regardless, the worldwide classic Espresso Martini is still wildly effective at its original purpose all these years later!