The din of curious conversation fills a neighborhood cocktail bar. Placed atop a coaster, a rocks glass is then delicately topped with a chili garnish. A bottle of amber-gold tequila with red chili peppers emblazoned on the label can be spotted behind the bar.
Across New York City, bar guests are seeking unique experiences and complex, layered drinks. The era of straightforward sweet and sour cocktails has passed, and bartenders across the city are rewriting the rules to deliver a full spectrum of flavors that include savory as well as spicy.
The heat’s not just for the outdoors this summer. If you’re craving something bold, you may find it waiting in your glass.
Spice is having a moment for cocktails. Guests are coming into their favorite cocktail bars looking for something with a kick, and asking for bespoke spicy beverages. Though the Bloody Mary and Spicy Margarita certainly whet the palate for spice in a cocktail, the movement has evolved beyond those staples, and proved to have the staying power needed to become a fixture in cocktail culture rather than a passing fad.
“I think the biggest reason is that bartenders today are trying to build more layered, complex drinks,” says Evgeny Tolmachev, head bartender at Mace NYC, about the growth of the spicy cocktail category. “Guests have evolved too. They don’t just ask for a margarita anymore; they’ll say they want something spicy, bitter, or savory. Those flavor profiles have become a part of the conversation.”
Rather than relying on sweet, sour, or bitter, spice shifts a drink’s complexity with even more depth, especially when not every heat is the same. Some spice hits your tongue with a quick zip and fades away, other spices linger warmly in the mouth, and some seem to get hotter the more you drink. Making sure that the heat doesn’t overwhelm the cocktail’s other ingredients is a balancing act, but when it’s done right, it creates something vibrant and fun.
Chili liqueurs, pepper tinctures, and spicy bitters are just a few ways to add heat to a drink. Of course, you can muddle peppers yourself and make a tincture. Bartenders in New York City are favoring infused spirits or tinctures in place of muddling to create a controllable, consistent level of spice, according to Ginn Choe, mixologist of Ligaw NYC and beverage manager of Club 3 on the TV series Bobby’s Triple Threat.
Choe says she makes her own in-house firewater bitters with Thai chilis for less pepper flavor and more “clean capsaicin.” But another option is an infused spirit, where alcohol extracts the flavors of the peppers of choice inside. While vodka is a popular spirit for infusion, the flavor profile of tequila lends itself well to spice.
The bright freshness and subtle herbal notes of the agave in tequila complement a pepper spice. Some peppers carry a fruity finish underneath all that heat, which further complements the characteristics of good tequila.
But homemade infusions take time to steep. What if there was another option that comes straight off the shelf? All three of the bartenders whose talents contributed the drinks featured are fans of the Carolina Reaper-and Habanero-infused REAPER by Tequila Zarpado.
The infusion comes together using the brand’s small-batch blanco as a base, carrying traditional notes of Weber blue agave with the flavor characteristics of the pepper. Zarpado is the only tequila producer currently using the Carolina Reaper, famously the “world’s hottest pepper,” in this way, though the sensation is less about pure heat and more about the way that spice gives way to a fruitiness underneath. This structure gives bartenders room to build complex flavors in cocktails around the spirit.
At Mace, the West Village cocktail bar known for its global approach to herbs and spices, Tolmachev balances flavors and techniques while also operating a bartender education channel on YouTube. For his REAPER cocktail, a riff on the Picante de la Casa, he wanted to bring culinary elements to the mix while highlighting the tequila’s heat.
“It combines fresh herbs and pepper in a very natural way,” says Tolmachev. “It’s simple and memorable.”
His Picante de la Casa uses lime and agave to draw out the tequila’s fruit character, while swapping the original recipe’s cilantro for basil. This adds a fresh, approachable snap that tempers REAPER’s spice while still letting the heat shine. “A well-made pepper infusion or spirit makes recipe development much more reliable. It allows you to focus on balance instead of constantly adjusting for variations in the peppers,” Tolmachev says.
Ginn Choe’s approach to her cocktail, the Spicy Paloma, meanwhile, uses the tequila’s heat to bring balance to the tequila and grapefruit ingredients, rather than reinventing it. Here, Zarpado’s REAPER is mixed with grapefruit and lime juices, agave syrup, and a topper of club soda, finished with a grapefruit twist.
Asked why the Paloma made sense as a base for a spicy riff, Choe says: “The tang of fine red grapefruit and citrus, and the sweet heat of the Reaper peppers come together into the drink. It’s a classic with a wonderful combination that pairs well with food to finalize a table by elevating any bites.”
To keep the citrus from getting lost against the spice, Choe added a touch of extra lime to bring out the Paloma’s characteristics while making it easy to make at home.
At Lucky Tiger NYC, head bartender Matt Almodiel took REAPER in a savory, corn-forward direction with the Cornography. He uses Nixta, a corn liqueur, as well as a sweet corn syrup to enhance the savory-yet-sweet flavor profile, while Kota Pandan liqueur adds body.
Served over ice in a rocks glass, the Cornography uses REAPER’s heat as an extension of the tequila’s earthier characteristics.
The three cocktails are unique and distinct, but all rely on highlighting different complexities found in a pepper-infused spicy spirit — proof that heat in a cocktail isn’t one-dimensional. The restrained Picante de la Casa, balanced Spicy Paloma, and savory Cornography all use spice as a cocktail building block in the same way as sour or bitter.
The versatility of that flavor element is why spicy cocktails have become a permanent part of cocktail culture. With social media helping push and shape global trends and palates, guests are more receptive than ever when it comes to choosing exciting new options on cocktail menus.
The next wave of NYC’s most interesting cocktails may not come from unearthing a forgotten classic or inventing a new technique, but from finding new ways to play with complex flavors like spice while keeping them the main character of the drink.
So the next time your drink comes with that chili garnish, don’t shy away from the heat — embrace it, and see where those flavors take you.
Picante de la Casa
Ingredients
- 2 ounces Zarpado REAPER Tequila
- 3/4 ounces fresh lime juice
- 1/4 ounce agave nectar
- 1 lime wedge
- A few basil leaves
Instructions
- In a cocktail shaker, shake all ingredients with ice.
- Fine strain into a rocks glass.
- Garnish with fresh basil.
Spicy Paloma
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 ounces Zarpado REAPER Tequila
- 1 1/2 ounces Grapefruit juice
- 1/2 ounce lime juice
- 3/4 ounces agave syrup
Directions
- In a cocktail shaker, shake all ingredients with ice.
- Strain into *glass over ice.
- Top with club soda.
- Garnish with a grapefruit twist.
*Glassware: Palomas are typically served in a highball glass, but feel free to style like Ginn in a fun wine glass!
Cornography
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 ounces Zarpado REAPER Tequila
- 1/2 ounce Nixta
- 1/2 ounce Kota Pandan
- 1/2 ounce sweet corn syrup
- 1/2 ounce lime
- 1/4 ounces sour cream whey
- 2 Dashes orange bitters
Directions
- In a cocktail shaker, shake all ingredients with ice.
- Double strain.
- Garnish with corn.
This article is sponsored by Tequila Zarpado.
