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Just because you don’t have a million-dollar espresso maker doesn’t mean you can’t make the perfect espresso martini at home. Certified sommelier Xander Jones, manager of Etch restaurant downtown, offers this hack to get all the fluffy crema of a top-shelf coffee-based cocktail.

“The answer isn’t cold brew. It’s cold espresso,” Xander confides, explaining that espresso beans are roasted longer and ground finer to extract more of the oils that give a shaken coffee cocktail that festive foamy cap that can float the traditional garnish of three coffee beans representing health, wealth and happiness.

Start with pre-ground espresso, which you can find at a local grocery. (Xander orders 10-ounce bricks of La Llave.) Using a ratio of 1 part ground espresso to 11 parts boiled (but no longer boiling) water, steep the espresso grounds for 10 minutes. Strain through a mesh colander or coffee filter, cool, and store in an airtight container for 3-5 days. Now you have cold espresso ready for your favorite coffee cocktail.

And if that happens to be an espresso martini, here’s how Xander makes his:

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Etch-Spresso Martini

- 2 ounces vodka infused with vanilla (Xander uses Black Lion vodka, in which he steeps a vanilla bean for three days ahead of time)

- 1 ounce coffee liqueur (Xander uses Evil Bean)

- 1 ounce espresso (see Xander’s hack above)

- 1/2 ounce demerara simple syrup made by dissolving 1 part brown sugar in one part water

Add all ingredients to the cocktail shaker with ice. Shake hard and strain into a coupe glass. Look at that dramatic separation of dark coffee and foamy crema! Garnish con la mosca, with the three beans representing health, wealth and happiness. (And try to forget that mosca means “fly” in Italian.)