Why It Pays To Double-Strain Your Espresso Martini

The reason bartenders hate making espresso martinis doesn't apply at home. Since you're only making drinks for yourself and maybe a handful of others, you can easily enjoy a luscious, frothy espresso martini with a seamless balance of sugary sweetness, stimulating espresso, and alcoholic oomph in the comfort of your own home. And you can do it with quality ingredients you know you love, including a solid espresso or even some cold brew for an extra-smooth twist on your espresso martini. But one critical step to crafting the ideal espresso martini has nothing to do with the ingredients at all.

Double-straining your cocktails is the surefire straining technique that makes homemade cocktails taste expensive. Usually done with the help of a regular cocktail strainer (such as a Hawthorne strainer) for primary filtration and a smaller fine-mesh strainer for secondary filtration, double-straining your drinks not only ensures absolutely no ice from your shaker gets into your glass, but it also provides a degree of smooth consistency and frothiness you simply can't obtain with only one strain.

If you don't have the right equipment, there's a variety of models available on Amazon. The well-reviewed OXO steel cocktail strainer is an affordable Hawthorne strainer with a soft, nonslip finger rest to make it easy to pour. Or you can opt for the slightly better-reviewed professional-grade Koriko Hawthorne strainer. You can buy a fine-mesh cocktail strainer specifically for bar use, but if you've already got a small kitchen strainer at home, you can also use that.

It's easy to understand how the double-straining technique can ensure an ice-free and smooth drinking experience. But there's way more than ice removal happening when your cocktail goes from shaker to strainer (and then to another strainer) to glass. It all boils down to the reasons we shake cocktails in the first place.

Shaking a drink incorporates air into your cocktail, creating a light, frothy texture. This aeration is one of the main reasons vigorous shaking is so important. But it isn't the only place where bubbles can form. 

When you strain your cocktail into a glass, yet more aeration is happening by way of the liquid passing through the filters of your strainer. You get a touch of this from your Hawthorne strainer, but you can add even more air if you utilize a fine-mesh strainer. This aeration turns all your bubbles into small, consistent bubbles, contributing to the frothy decadence of the perfect espresso martini -– and with just a couple of inexpensive strainers, all that lusciousness can be yours.