The Only Pornstar Martini Recipe You'll Ever Need

The Pornstar Martini is an enticing and intensely flavoured passion fruit cocktail made from vanilla vodka, Passoa and lime juice. Combine the ingredients, shake over plenty of ice and serve with a shot of prosecco on the side.

There's a reason this easy cocktail is the UK's favourite: The intoxicatingly named Pornstar Martini is completely irresistible.

Love cocktails and fancy a smoother more decadent drink? My White Russian is a must-try!

Looking for non-alcoholic drink options? Try my Homemade Lemon Cordial or Elderflower Cordial recipes.

I worked my way through uni at a small and secret cocktail bar in my hometown of Bristol. I arrived not even knowing how to open a bottle of champagne and left 2 ½ years later a confident mixologist.

I'm the Queen of cocktails to my friends, who love learning how to flame orange peel and mix a mean martini. And I'm more than happy to be of service.

Making cocktails on the weekends is standard around here and the Pornstar Martini Cocktail is one of my all-time favourites. Everyone who tastes it loves it too!

A Pornstar Martini - not to be confused with a pawn star martini (!!) The latter conjuring more wholesome images of people sipping drinks while playing in a chess tournament as opposed to this rather X-rated cocktail with its provocative name.

This world-famous cocktail isn't actually a true martini at all considering it's completely lacking in vermouth - an essential martini ingredient.

True martini or not, this is one cocktail guaranteed to excite everyone that tastes it.

The Pornstar - or Maverick - is one of many cocktails that's borrowed the term Martini and incorporated it into its name.

I've also heard it called Rock Star, Movie Star, and Passion Fruit Martini, although these are all slightly different iterations of the original cocktail.

Why is it called a Pornstar Martini?

The Pornstar Martini is a real modern classic and probably one of the most successful cocktails to have been invented in the 21st century. It's a cocktail that, since its creation in 2002, has found worldwide appreciation. The legendary bartender Douglas Ankrah invented this vodka cocktail behind the bar at The Townhouse Bar in Knightsbridge, London. He allegedly initially named the cocktail the ‘Maverick Martini’, after a dingy club in Cape Town, South Africa. The cocktail quickly gained popularity under the more catchy name of ‘Pornstar Martini’, which alludes to the passion fruit in the drink.

Bolls

This easy cocktail is

✔︎ Fruity
✔︎ Zingy
✔︎ Sweet
✔︎ Simple
✔︎ Seductive

What you need

As with most cocktails, the Pornstar Martini ingredients are simple to get hold of and unless you're having one heck of a party you'll be able to store any leftovers for your next cocktail making session. The Passoa and vanilla vodka are versatile ingredients and the base of many drinks.

Here's what you'll need to buy to make this cocktail.

• Passion Fruit: Fresh passion fruit is used to extract the juice and give the cocktail a strong passion fruit base flavour. It's also used as a garnish. If you can't find fresh then you can use a passion fruit puree instead. Funkin Pro make a really good puree that's full of fresh passion fruit flavour and is available on Amazon for around £7.99.
• Vanilla Vodka: The Absolut vanilla flavoured vodka is my all-time favourite and it's the one we always used in the cocktail bar. I recommend it because it's got a really good natural vanilla flavouring and doesn't taste at all synthetic.
• Passoa: An essential ingredient to a Pornstar Martini. Passoa is a passion fruit flavoured liqueur made with real passion fruit. You can find Passoa in the liqueur section of the supermarket or it's often quite cheap on Amazon.
• Lime Juice: Fresh lime juice is used to give a good acidic bite to the Pornstar Martini.
• Ice: You'll need plenty of ice to shake, mix and dilute the cocktail.
• Prosecco: A Pornstar Martini should be served with a shot of really cold prosecco on the side.

Which type of cocktail shaker is best?

There are 3 main types of cocktail shaker:

• The Cobbler Shaker: Also known as a 3 piece shaker, is inexpensive and good for beginners as it has a built-in strainer in the lid.
• The French or Parisian Shaker: Usually a 2 piece that doesn't have a strainer built-in. It's made of steel and does a brilliant job of chilling a cocktail really quickly.
• The Boston Shaker: Is made up of a metal tin and glass cup, it doesn't have a built-in strainer. It's the shaker you'll usually see in bars and the professional's choice.

I have a few different cocktail sets and almost always use a Boston Shaker. You need to make sure it has a good seal which can be difficult to open. The trick is to squeeze the tin which breaks the seal and then the glass lid should pop off easily.

Whichever shaker you go for you'll still end up with an amazing cocktail as long as you use plenty of ice and take care straining into your cocktail glass.

How to make a Pornstar Martini Cocktail

Step One: Put two martini glasses into the freezer or fill them with ice and set them aside. Cut four passion fruit in half and scoop the seeds into a sieve set over a small bowl. Press down on the seeds with the back of a spoon to extract the juice.

Step Two: Add the passion fruit juice, vanilla vodka, Passoa and lime juice to a cocktail shaker.

Step Three: Fill the shaker up about halfway with ice, put on the lid and shake for at least 30 seconds to ensure a proper mix.

Step Four: If your shaker doesn't have a built-in strainer, put a coiled strainer over the top of your shaker and strain into a chilled martini glass (don't forget to dump the ice out of the glasses first!) Garnish with a piece of fresh passion fruit.

Step Five: Pour a measure of prosecco into a shot glass and serve alongside the Pornstar Martini.

Enjoy!

How do you drink yours?

A Pornstar Martini should be served in very cold martini glasses and garnished with a piece of passion fruit. There should be a shot (about 45mls) of prosecco or champagne on the side.

There is some debate over what happens with the shot of prosecco. Do you down it or pour it in?

Some mixologists will tell you to slowly pour the prosecco over the top of the passion fruit to release the flavour and then drink the cocktail.

According to my cocktail handbook, the "proper" order of the drink goes: scoop out the passionfruit and suck on the seeds then take alternate sips of cocktail and prosecco.

Personally I prefer not to pour my shot in but...

You do you!

Remember, this is a when-the-air-hits type of drink! It's so deliciously cold and sweet and the passion fruit is so intense and enticingly flavoured that it can go down a little too easily.

It's not until the air hits you that you realise how much you've had to drink.

You've been warned!

Recipe Notes and Tips

• You can substitute fresh passion fruit with a puree such as Funkin Pro. Any leftovers can be stored in the pouch in the freezer or squeezed into an ice cube tray for convenience.
• You can skip sieving the passion fruit seeds and add the contents of four passion fruit straight into the cocktail shaker. You will need to double strain with a coiled strainer over a small sieve into the glass to avoid any seeds getting into your drink.
• You can substitute vanilla vodka with plain, add half a teaspoon of vanilla extract to the recipe.
• Some recipes call for sugar syrup (simple syrup), I've left it out because I think this cocktail is sweet enough but if it tastes too tart follow the instructions below and add 1-2 teaspoons of syrup to taste.
• This cocktail is served without ice. After shaking, use a tightly coiled strainer to strain into a martini glass to avoid getting any shards of ice into the cocktail.
• If you don't have any bubbly to serve on the side you can always opt for sparkling wine.

How to make sugar syrup

• Dissolve 300g caster sugar in 150ml water over a low heat.
• Leave to cool and bottle for future use in cocktails. Store in the fridge for two weeks.

More Tempting Passion fruit cocktails

• Passion fruit Mojito by Salt and Wind
• Passion Fruit Moscow Mule by Pineapple and Coconut
• Passion Fruit Caipiroska by Mommy's Home Cooking
• Passion Fruit Bellini by Garlic and Zest
• Passion Fruit Gin Collins by Tesco Real Food