Merlet Fils Café Cognac & Soho Grind Launch Espresso Martini Month

If there is any one cocktail that is certain to both pick you up and fuck you up, then hands down it's the Espresso Martini. So when an email landed in our inbox inviting us to celebrate the launch of Espresso Martini Month with Merlet et Fils Café Cognac and Soho Grind, it's fair to say we were more bloody hysterical than if we had just been hooked up to an IV drip filled with some of the best bourbon known to man! So true to form we threw on some glad rags, donned a rather fetching hat and sashayed our liquor-loving arses down to Soho Grind (which is, unsurprisingly, in Soho) to indulge in as many ambrosial Espresso Martini’s as our bodies could physically handle, before the inevitable heart palpitations kicked in! And this is how it went…

Now we're quite partial to an Espresso Martini, hell let's cut to the damn chase and just say they're bloody awesome; coffee and booze in one glass, what's not to freaking love? And whether made with vodka or brandy, you can't deny they're intensely delectable. Created by cocktail legend Dick Bradsell in the 80s after a supermodel walked into his bar and asked for a cocktail that would both "wake me up and fuck me up," the Espresso Martini was spawned and is now a cherished cocktail for anyone needing an alcoholic slap round the face! So when we entered Soho Grind and was handed one picture perfect Espresso Martini, our faces simply lit up with pure delight at receiving such a glass full of utter decadence. These Espresso Martini's were off the freaking wall! Made using Merlet Café Cognac, Merlet Brother's Blend Cognac, sugar syrup and a perfectly blended shot of espresso, these caffeine packed glasses of sheer heaven went down quicker than a greased up streaker on a fireman's pole!

But we'd actually never tried any of the Merlet Cognac range before, so for us it was great introduction to a new spirit, and what a damn fine spirit it was! Merlet Brother's Blend is an elaboration by Gilles Merlet and his two sons Pierre and Luc, it's a new style of cognac reflecting a new generation. This particular cognac is an amalgamation of eau-de-vie over 4 years old and up to 10 years old from the Fin Bois, Grande and Petite Champagne regions. And it just works so perfectly in an Espresso Martini. Add this to their Merlet Café Cognac, a blend of their finest cognac infused with 100% Arabica Brazilian coffee extract and a touch of sugar to create a liqueur (honestly, this is so damn hot you could eternally knock this back until it was coming out of your freaking eyeballs!), throw in some coffee and BAM; ecstasy in a glass!

But we can't chat continuously about this cocktail without mentioning the actual bloody coffee itself! One of three Grind coffee houses scattered around London and nestled down Beak Street, Soho Grind (an all day and late night expresso and cocktail bar) has used a specific blend of coffee for these Espresso Martinis that is described by Grind's Head of Coffee Sam Teventhyen as being; 'sweet but complex, with notes of caramel, praline and brownies to compliment Merlet's Café Cognac, creating an Espresso Martini worthy of any Barista." And we can bloody second that, these guys are deliverers of some stand out coffee!

So as dusk finally descended on our provocative city, we saw the evening out immersed in the heavenly sensory experience of Soho Grind, drinking up both the knockout Merlet Espresso Martinis and the atmospheric surroundings of such a great coffee house. All kinds of all-round awesomeness, for sure! However, one problem arose. Due to the sheer volume of liquid we had impressively consumed, our chances of getting any kind of kip that night was hideously slim as our bodies were now filled with so much caffeine that we could power a bloody jet plane! All in the name of research, though! And to think this was only one evening, we've got a whole bloody month of sheer caffeine induced hyper highs to go yet. Well, bring it on we say!

So if you ever needed an excuse to indulge in as many of these exquisite cocktails a palpably possible (like you need a bloody excuse!), then Espresso Martini Month is sure to be a damn mammoth one! All you need to do is get your bodies down to any one of the three Grind locations (Shoreditch, Soho, London Bridge), and choose from one of these three Merlet Espresso Martini's; d'orange, vanilla or perfect, throughout the month of June for a mere fiver a pop! Magic! You all need to get involved people, and get involved quick! Boom!

If you want to find out more about Merlet or Soho Grind then you can head over to their websites: www.sohogrind.com www.merlet.fr

Merlet Espresso Martini

Get this down your gullet!

Ingredients

40ml Merlet Brothers Blend

15ml Merlet C2 Café Cognac

10ml Sugar syrup(or to taste)

1 shot of Espresso

Coffee bean for garnish

Method: Combine the Brothers Blend, C2 Café Cognac, sugar syrup and espresso in a cocktail shaker filled with cubed ice, shake hard and single strain in a large chilled coupette. Serve and decorate with a coffee bean.

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