Fresh and fruity, savoury and bold – these recipes prove drinks are better when they come with a kick.

Do you always have six bottles of hot sauce on the go? Take it as a challenge when waiters ask how spicy you’d like your dish? Don’t consider a meal complete without a serious chill kick? If this is you, we’re guessing you’re also into cocktails that bring the heat. You’ll already know and love drinks like the Bloody Mary, Michelada and at least one kind of hot Margarita. But we’ve rounded up some other spicy cocktails to shake up your repertoire that are also super easy to make.

A lot of the cocktails in the following selection get their spice from fresh chilli, but others showcase ingredients like wasabi, hot honey, gochujang paste and more. And whether you like your spicy drinks to also be sweet, savoury, fruity or otherwise, there’s a cocktail in here that meets the brief.

4 MINS READ

1. Spicy Cosmo cocktail recipe

Carrie Bradshaw doesn’t know what she’s missing with this spicy riff on the classic Cosmo. Taking the traditional base of vodka, cranberry juice and lime juice, our twist adds peach liqueur and a splash of hot sauce, creating a balance of sweet, spicy and tangy goodness. Once you get a hang of the flavours, you can up the hot sauce to your liking. We go even further by coating a side of the glass in Tajin seasoning to really guarantee a kick.

3 MINS READ

2. Diablo Rojo cocktail recipe

We created the Diablo Rojo especially for Halloween, but it’s a great pick year-round. Anyone into the veggie savouriness of a Bloody Mary will love the bullhorn peppers that form the base here. Throw in mezcal, agave syrup, lemon juice, paprika and the all-important Tabasco sauce, and you’ve got yourself a smoky, spicy and sweet cocktail that will wake up your tastebuds – and appetite – in a big way.

5 MINS READ

3. Satay Mary cocktail recipe

We’ve already mentioned the Bloody Mary, but if you’ve been there, done that, meet the Satay Mary, our Thai-inspired nutty take on the iconic cocktail. Peanut butter and sriracha bring the party to a traditional Bloody Mary base, but Maggi Seasoning as well as Worcestershire help to ramp up the savoury factor. It’s salty, nutty and got a pretty serious kick, so we reckon this one ticks all our savoury-spicy cocktail boxes.

4 MINS READ

4. Devil’s Horn cocktail recipe

We can’t go past a cocktail with a novelty garnish, so the Devil’s Horn wins in a big way with its bird’s eye chillis perched on the side of the glass. But this cocktail also happens to be delicious, too, with a unique mix of spiced rum, cranberry juice, honey syrup, fresh lime juice, raspberries, Tabasco and a pinch of salt. It might sound strange, but it creates a sweet, sour and spicy flavour bomb.

4 MINS READ

5. Spicy Mango Margerita cocktail recipe

Spicy Margs are some of our favourite cocktails with a kick, but throw in some fresh mango and ice, and blitz it in a blender, and you’ve got a next-level riff. Orange juice, agave syrup and triple sec add sweetness and depth, while hot sauce brings the spice. A little experimentation is needed to figure out how hot you like it (start with a dash or two per serve), and a Tajin glass rim seals it.

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6. Spicy Honey Margarita cocktail recipe

Could this be the ultimate summer Marg? This Spicy Honey Peach take is made with fresh peach, although frozen works well too (grab a tray in late summer, freeze the flesh and thank us later). Chuck it in a blender with tequila, lime juice, hot honey and ice, and blitz it all up for a deliciously smooth, sweet and subtly spicy cocktail. You can easily batch it up for a crowd, too.

2 MINS READ

7. Spicy Pickle Margarita cocktail recipe

If you lean more savoury than fruity, and you’re partial to a pickle, you’re in the right place. This cocktail uses reposado tequila to stand up to the strong flavours, mixing it with lime juice and agave syrup, but pickle brine and jalapeños take this far beyond a Tommy’s Marg. We love its briney, spicy flavours, but topping it with a pickle makes it an outright winner.

3 MINS READ

8. Cucumber Wasabi Gimlet cocktail recipe

It’s not just chilli that brings a kick – wasabi does the heavy lifting in this fresh and bright cocktail. That’s all thanks to its base of gin, lemon juice and sugar syrup, which gets shaken with a little wasabi and garnished with cucumber sprinkled with togarashi seasoning. Even though no cucumber goes into the drink, its aromas (and the fact you’ll inevitably chomp on it at some point) help to lift this refreshing cocktail.

3 MINS READ

9. Lao Gan Martini cocktail recipe

If you like to easily control the amount of spice in your cocktails, the Lao Gan Martini should be right up your alley. Vodka, yuzu liqueur, lemon juice, honey syrup, lemon sorbet and a pinch of salt create a tart and zesty cocktail with depth, but then a few drops of the cult-favourite chilli oil Lao Gan Ma to finish delivers the hit of spice – you’ll know whether you’ll want a splog or just a drizzle.

3 MINS READ

10. Tokyo Sour cocktail recipe

We don’t think sake gets enough time to shine, but this Tokyo Sour puts it front and centre. Here, sake gets shaken with lemon juice, grapefruit juice and agave syrup in a tart but balanced mix, and the spicy element comes purely from the togarashi-coated glass rim. That makes this cocktail another great pick for fans of zingy flavours and anyone who like to go a little lighter on the spice.

2 MINS READ

11. Summer in Seoul cocktail recipe

If you’re not familiar with Korea’s gochujang, the fermented soybean chilli paste, this cocktail is an excellent intro – it’s what gives this drink its spice and umami. When mixed with Korean spirit soju, pineapple juice, lime juice, honey syrup and mint, you get a seriously complex, moreish cocktail. The pineapple juice gives it a fluffy head, and garnished with mint, orange and cherries, it takes on a whole tiki vibe.

2 MINS READ

12. Spicy Buch-erita cocktail recipe

Love bold flavours? We’ve saved the best for last. This cocktail heroes tequila, which gets shaken with lime juice, agave syrup and your fave hot sauce, and then poured out and topped with kombucha. The result is a fizzy Marg-inspired twist that’s sour but balanced, and it’s not shy about letting its spice shine, either. We’ve given it a Tajin-coated glass rim, but you can dial back the spice with a plain salt rim, too.