International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC) medal winner, August 2020
We cold-brew our single-origin speciality coffee before blending with our vodka and adding plump, fresh Indonesian vanilla pods. The newly made spirit is then allowed to rest for a few weeks, to allow all the flavours to marry and work together. The combination of the highest quality ingredients brought together and given time to develop, results in delicious deep coffee flavours and a beautiful dark mahogany colour in the glass.
Wild Knight® Espresso Martini is best served slightly chilled on its own, but also try over ice-cream - delicious.
At tastings, this is one of our most popular drinks. Espresso coffee plus English vodka – what’s not to love!
Tasting notes: Deep coffee with notes of toffee, brown sugar and chocolate. Very smooth and soft on the palate. |
Alcohol: 26.5% ABV. |
Allergens: Gluten free and does not contain any notifiable allergens. |
Pack size: 5cl miniature. |
Matt's Notes:
"I enjoy good coffee and wanted to create a coffee liqueur that would use the best ingredients and no flavourings. All the flavour must come from the raw ingredients that I use, and I believe that you can taste the difference.
Recipe development took me down many paths but learning about single-origin coffee and the art of cold-brew helped me to understand how to extract the maximum depth of flavour, without bringing the bitterness to the fore.
Currently, we are using the Caturra and Catuai varieties of the Arabica species from Costa Rica. This has a medium roast and is ideal for our cold-brew process.
I have evolved our production processes over the last 5 years and use wine-making racking techniques to remove any sediment, rather than the plate filter that I originally used to filter the coffee. That was not a job that you did wearing a white tee shirt!
We balance our coffee with a blend of two distinct sugars to craft our Espresso Martini, to bring the coffee flavours to the fore.
Finally, maturation is essential to allow all the flavour elements to meld together and for the spirit to smooth out."
Fair Trade products guarantee a minimum price back to the growers to support their families. We use single-origin coffee that is produced at a higher quality level and is traceable back to the grower, rather than being sold into a Fair Trade cooperative. Growers are paid more for this high-quality coffee than for Fair Trade and the crop is highly sought after.
The result is more cash back to the farmer and the highest quality coffee for us.
Once roasted, we cold-brew our coffee beans. This makes a very large, cold espresso and the aroma is fantastic as it brews.
The cold-brew process gently extracts the coffee flavour, leaving the bitterness behind.
The freshly cold-brewed coffee is blended with our secret recipe of sugars and vodka. Then we age for 2 months with plump Indonesian vanilla pods, allowing all the flavours to develop and meld together.
Then it's time to bottle, ready to be enjoyed.
To create the crema (the fine foam) that you see on the top of an Espresso Martini cocktail; add equal amounts of Wild Knight Espresso Martini and freshly brewed 'hot' coffee to a cocktail shaker with plenty of ice. Shake very vigorously for 20 to 30 seconds before straining into your cocktail glass and you will be rewarded with a delightful crema on top.
Remember - use hot, not cold coffee, to create the crema. Hot coffee lowers the viscosity, creating a fine foam. That's the science bit. Enjoy!