From wasabi and ginger to infusions and more, here are the best ways to turn up the heat.
Spice in cocktails is the best thing since sliced bread. It makes your Bloody Marys so much more delicious, jazzes up the rim of your fruit cocktails and, come on, how about that Spicy Marg? Forget about it!
So, in the spirit of all things hot, hot, hot, we’ve rounded up a few of our fave ways to insert a little heat into our cocktails. From wasabi syrups and infused chilli spirits to the lickable Tajin rim, the following tips are for those who like it hot.
1. Muddling and shaking
This is a teaching moment. Instead of giving you all our spicy cocktail recipes upfront, we’re going to give you a few ways to insert some heat into your cocktails at home, starting with the most obvious, straight-up muddling and shaking. You can do this with chillies at the bottom of your Mojito or other muddled or shaken drinks – that is if you’re okay with sucking up whole chilli seeds into your gob (we salute you). Alternatively, mixing through a hot sauce or vinegar of some kind works just as well, too. Our go-to would be Tabasco (a barrel-aged vinegar product), which works particularly well mixed through your Bloody Mary and Michelada.
2. Homemade syrups
Another great way to turn up the heat in your cocktails is to make a syrup. They’re dead easy and you can use literally everything in them. So, if you’re not too keen on a chilli-hot cocktail, why not make a ginger syrup or wasabi syrup, or even a gochujang syrup? If this sounds like you, we’ve put together a pretty extensive guide on syrup-making here.
3. Infusing spirits
Can’t be assed cooking? Infusing spirits is the way to go as it’s another really great and easy way to inject a little something-something into your drink. We recommend using some nice fresh chillies, wasabi or ginger and cutting them into wide chunks – the more surface area, the faster the infusion. Though beware, if you’re infusing wasabi it tends to go a bit bitter so make sure you taste-test your batch to ensure it’s quality. Keen on infusing at home? Have a read of our piece on grown-up infusions for more info.
4. Tincturing
This sounds very sciencey, but don’t worry, tincturing is a breeze. Unlike our infusions above, tincturing uses very high-proof neutral distillate like 100-proof vodka or Everclear. This is NOT alcohol for mixing but acts kind of like bitters – just a few drops in a single cocktail will pack a glorious punch. Simply drop your sliced chillies or whatever you’re using into the distillate and let it steep for hours or days to your taste. We recommend getting one of those squeezy chef bottles or even an eyedropper to ensure you’re not putting too much in your cocktail.
5. Garnishing the rim
Lastly, and probably the easiest way to spice up your drink, is to put chilli, chilli salt, wasabi salt or Tajin (Mexican chilli and lime seasoning) on the rim, so when you take a drink, it ends up in your mouth. Do this by rimming the glass with a cut lime and rolling your glass through the powder/salt mix. Easy!
Alrighty, the moment you have been waiting for. Below, we list a few of our fave spicy cocktails, in no particular order.
1. Matt Stirling’s Summer in Seoul (pictured)
A perfect example of a cocktail with spice that’s not (technically) chilli. Matt’s Summer in Seoul mixes the umami, chilli soy bean paste gochujang with honey syrup, pineapple juice, lime juice and soju to create a deliciously fruity and umami cocktail that has just a hint of that yummy spice of the gochujang. Definitely one to try at home whenever you’ve got a chance.
Remember when we said the easiest way to get heat into your drink is hot sauce and/or a spicy salt rim? Well, this guy has both. It’s a refreshing mix of tequila, lime juice, agave syrup and kombucha (fruit-flavoured, if possible) disrupted by a few dashes of hot sauce, and a yummy Tajin and salt mixed rim. Served tall and over a good amount of ice, this is both refreshing and spicy in the best way.
3. Spicy Marg
We can’t go past the OG spicy cocktail. A spicy twist on the classic – essentially a Margarita, but like we said above, some chilli shaken into the mix. It’ll give the lime, tequila and triple sec a good spicy spark, but beware of the chilli seeds that sometimes dodge the strainer. Level up your Spicy Marg with chilli-infused tequila or a tincture to avoid the fresh chilli getting lodged behind your canines.
4. & 5. The Bloodys and the Michelada (pictured)
The easiest drinks to make spicy are the ones with tomato in them. Why? Well, chillies and tomatoes are a hop, skip and a jump away from each other on the fruit and veg family tree (in our opinion), and they just go too well together to separate. Slosh as much Tabasco in your Bloody Mary (try this recipe with sherry) and Micheladas as you want! Garnish with pickled chillis or pickled ginger, or muddle in some wasabi. The sky’s the limit with these bad boys!
