Vegan Espresso Martini Recipe + a List of Vegan Coffee Liqueurs

I was shocked when I found out that the average Espresso Martini—my favourite cocktail!—usually isn’t vegan. Following the success of my Vegan Snowball Cocktails I knew I had to experiment with coffee cocktails until I found the perfect vegan substitute for an Espresso Martini.

So what makes an Espresso Martini not vegan, you might ask? Well, for starters, usually Kahlúa, a coffee liqueur, is used to make these delicious cocktails. Unfortunately Kahlúa is not suitable for vegans. I used Barnivore to find a vegan coffee liqueur—scroll down for my list of vegan coffee liqueurs below. The vegan coffee liqueur I used is Aber Falls coffee & dark chocolate liqueur; it’s a smooth liqueur that’s not too sweet with a hint of dark chocolate.

Another reason Espresso Martini isn’t always vegan is because egg white is used to give it a creamy layer on top. No thanks! When using espresso straight from the machine, you’ll get that creamy layer anyway, so I decided not to use aquafaba to replace the egg white.

To decorate the rim of the glasses I used a little bit of white sugar which I then mixed with a tiny amount of cocoa powder.

List of vegan coffee liqueurs:

• Koval Coffee Liqueur
• Soiree Coffee Liqueur
• Piccala coffee liqueur
• Kona Gold Coffee Liqueur
• Giffard Coffee Liqueur
• Cardinal Songbird Coffee Liqueur
• Mr Black Coffee Liqueur
• Settlers Coffee Liqueur
• DuBouchett Coffee Liqueur
• VOK Coffee Liqueur
• Damn Fine Coffee Liqueur
• St. George Nola Coffee Liqueur
• Kimberley Faithful Henry Coffee Liqueur
• Prairie Wolf Dark Coffee Liqueur
• Aber Falls Coffee & Dark Chocolate Liqueur
• Bulldog Brewery LA Coffee and Vanilla Liqueur Kit