Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.
It’s been a while since I had an actual, proper martini. Actually, it’s possible I’ve only had one or two in my lifetime.
Sure, there was an undergrad dalliance with something approaching an apple-tini (I regret nothing). There was a stretch of some wild, extremely potent cocktails poured by a wonderful septuagenarian named “Martini Bob” at Madison’s sadly shuttered Smoky’s Supper Club. But for the most part, the intersection of vodka or gin and vermouth has been a blind spot in my boozing career.
It still mostly is, but the rise of espresso martinis has been unignorable. I opted for a canned version when I was rolling through Two Roads’ lineup this summer. Now, thanks to XXI, I’ve got more access to this corner of the cocktail spectrum I rarely visit.
XXI Martinis are ready-to-drink bottles that take the effort of shaking, straining or stirring out of the equation. They’re also nestled tightly in the marketplace of “fun martinis” — no heavy gin or olive juice here, just sweeter flavors like chocolate, peach and, of course, espresso. That’s a win for me; hell, I already admitted my soft spot for sour apple schnapps. This left me eager to see if XXI deserves a place in my liquor cabinet.
Espresso: B+
While some espresso martinis can be overpowering — Two Roads’ canned version was particularly strong — XXI leans heavier into the coffee than the vodka within. Granted, it’s only a 30 proof cocktail, but the cream liqueur within gives it a proper thickness akin to drinking a doctored cold brew. There’s no bite to it, and your ability to drink it may depend on your tolerance for the thick sweetness in each sip.
It really hits a sweet spot as a dessert drink. It lands on a lot of the same notes as Pabst’s hard coffees (criminally underrated!) at three times the alcohol. You get a lot less in terms of volume in the bottle (each clocks in at 750 milliliters), but it’s similarly tasty. This is gonna be a fine early kickoff tailgate drink, something that can be sipped on its own or boosted with a little extra booze to speed things up.
Peach: B
It smells great — like straight-up peach candy without a hint of alcohol. But it also pours with some concentrated peach bits at the top. Kinda gross, but I’m happy we’re dealing with the real thing, at least.
Like the espresso it’s thicker than expected, but that’s not to its detriment. It’s also slightly creamy, and while there’s no cream liqueur involved this time around it’s clear the natural fruit juice (and vegetable juice, per the label?) added is an added bonus.
For a martini, this is another easy sipper that works on its own but would also serve as a decent mixing base. Pour this into a glass and add a shot of vodka and you’d have something that tastes a little more like a traditional martini strength-wise, only with a bonus ABV. As is, it’s sweet and probably cloyingly so if you’re drinking to drink a bunch of it at one time. But it’s also a martini, so that shouldn’t be a problem.
Raspberry: B-
This is the first bottle where you can smell a hint of vodka off the pour. It’s a very minor presence on the first sip, but the raspberry strikes a more syrup-y balance than the last two martinis. It’s thick, but in a stickier way this time around that makes it a bit less pleasant.
It’s not bad, it’s just not as tasty as the other XXI variants. The raspberry is heavy and sweet, and while there’s a little vodka in each sip it’s nothing that burns. It’s not really my style — it’ll sit in my liquor cabinet until company swings over — but I’ll be happy to offer it up whenever someone asks “well, what’ve you got?”
Would I drink it instead of a Hamm's?
Welcome to a new feature on these reviews; a pass/fail mechanism where I compare whatever I’m drinking to my baseline cheap beer. That’s the standby from the land of sky-blue waters, Hamm’s. So the question to answer is: on a typical day, would I drink XXI’s martinis over a cold can of Hamm’s?
I might, in fact. It’s a nice change of pace drink, even if that’s not something I’ll have more than a couple of in a sitting. The espresso is especially useful for early kickoffs and, say, an alma mater that has yet to cover a damn spread in 2023.
