The Chocolate Martini is often dismissed as a misstep from the ‘90s, along with Hypercolor T-shirts and Vanilla Ice. Served in a Martini glass (the only thing that technically qualifies it as a Martini), it’s a creamy-sweet combination of chocolate liqueur, vodka and half and half. It would be easy to forget, to write off as a bartender’s fever dream, to banish from all cocktail menus, but we saw potential in the dessert drink. So we took it upon ourselves to fix it.
First, we swapped out the vodka for two different rums—Bacardi 8-year for deep caramel flavor and Denizen for balance and brightness. Next, instead of buying a chocolate liqueur, we made our own. Then, we skipped the cream altogether, dropped in a touch of raspberry liqueur (because chocolate and raspberry are made for each other), and introduced a little bitterness into the mix with Bittermens Mole Bitters and Ramazzotti Amaro.