Espresso martinis seem to have been trending for so long now that the word no longer applies. Their revival — espresso martinis are said to date back to about the 1980s — was a cocktail world novelty for a minute there, but they’ve now become so ubiquitous that they’re just a bit basic. So the very trend chasers that brought espresso martinis to everyone’s lips might want to move on to a new libation. And the brandy Alexander is just the sophisticated tipple to hit a lot of the same notes as an espresso martini without the (caffeinated) buzz.
Both the espresso martini, made with espresso, vodka, coffee liqueur, and sometimes a sweetener, and the brandy Alexander (brandy, crème de cacao, heavy cream, and a dusting of nutmeg) are best enjoyed as dessert drinks. It would be silly to try to slink around the club with either, they’re both too heavy for session sipping, and neither pair very well with a wide enough variety of foods to be a dinner go-to. The former might have a little more versatility around brunch time, but if you add in the fact that bartenders hate making espresso martinis, the brandy Alexander inches ahead as the superior sip. If you think you’ll miss the caffeine, maybe just try to get a better night’s rest.
How the Alexander got brandied
If you suspect that the “brandy” prefix in this case implies the existence of some other Alexander somewhere out there, then you are correct. Just like an espresso martini isn’t a martini (the general public’s thirst to call anything in a cocktail glass a martini is unquenchable), a brandy Alexander isn’t a true Alexander.
Recipes for the original Alexander date back to the early 1900s, and swapped the brandy for gin. The brandy update, which sometimes calls more specifically for cognac, first started catching public notice later that same century. As always, however, there’s no accounting for what folks might have been mixing behind closed doors in those halcyon pre-social media days, so this and other riffs could very well have already been in circulation. The Alexander hasn’t trended yet, which actually makes the brandy Alexander impervious to seeming dated, unlike the tiresomely ubiquitous espresso martini.
