Espresso Recipe

Chill glass

Place a coupe or martini glass in the freezer or fill with ice water to chill while you prepare the cocktail.

Pull a fresh espresso shot (about 1 oz). Allow it to cool to room temperature — or use the Sawada Project X fresh espresso already cooled. Reserve 0.25 oz if you plan to do an espresso rinse.

Combine ingredients

In a cocktail shaker, add 2 oz Haku Espresso Vodka, 1 oz cooled Sawada Project X fresh espresso, 0.5 oz coffee liqueur (optional), 0.5 tablespoon dark chocolate syrup, and 0.5 teaspoon kokuto syrup.

Add ice and shake

Fill the shaker with about 6 ice cubes. Firmly seal and shake vigorously for 12–18 seconds until the outside of the shaker is very cold and you see a fine foam forming from the espresso.

Fine strain

Discard ice or water from the chilled glass. Double-strain the shaken cocktail into the chilled coupe or martini glass using a Hawthorne strainer and a fine mesh strainer to capture foam and small ice shards.

Espresso rinse (optional)

If using the optional 0.25 oz fresh espresso rinse: pour the small amount of espresso into the chilled glass, swirl to coat, then discard or leave a thin coating before pouring the cocktail in. This adds an intense espresso aroma.

Garnish

Lightly dust the surface of the cocktail with 1 teaspoon cocoa powder. Float one chocolate shaving or a small chocolate disk on the foam. For an accent of kokuto flavor, you can carefully drizzle a tiny additional dot (about 1/8 tsp) of kokuto syrup onto the chocolate garnish.

Serve immediately with no straw so the aroma of the espresso and kokuto comes through.