Thirsty Thursday Eve - Pepper Vodka
I’ve recently started experimenting with vodka infused with different types of peppers. The flavors have been all over the place, but it’s a really interesting way to spice up (pun intended) a boring spirit.
Spicy drinks are very divisive. My first spicy beer was at an Independence Day party many moons ago. I didn’t hate it, but I also didn’t know if I liked it, either. Over the years, I tried a few other spicy beers, as well as the novel idea of putting hot sauce in a regular beer, and I’ve grown to like them occasionally. I’m not drinking spicy beer all the time, but I’ll drink one every now and then just for something different.
After trying a few spicy beers, it occurred to me that I could infuse a distilled spirit with spicy flavor on my own. I had made Jolly Rancher vodka before, how different could spicy vodka be? I sliced up a jalapeno, threw it in a pint mason jar, and filled it up with Kirkland Signature American vodka.
I let the jar sit for a few days undisturbed. I didn’t know how long the infusion process would take (turns out it takes about an hour), but I figured a couple of days would be adequate to at least taste a difference. I took a sip and it tasted… sweet. Almost like a raw bell pepper, with that fresh almost floral flavor.
It was good, but it wasn’t exactly spicy. I drank a shot here or there, but I was a little disappointed about the heat. I wanted something that I could use in small volumes to spice up a drink, not some floral vodka to mix in place of regular vodka. I could’ve thrown multiple jalapenos in the jar, but how many would it take before it actually got spicy? I let that remain a one-off experiment for a time.
A little while later, one of my wife’s coworkers gave us a couple of peppers from her garden. We had tried to grow bell peppers before with very little success. This lady had jalapenos, cayennes and habaneros in droves. With a little convincing, my wife let me use one of the habaneros for another batch of spicy vodka. I figured that habaneros were spicier than jalapenos, so I might be able to feel the heat a little more.
At the time, I didn’t realize just HOW much hotter habanero peppers are than jalapeno peppers. Where a jalapeno sits somewhere around 5,000-10,000 Scoville units, habanero peppers are typically north of 100,000 and can be as high as 800,000 Scoville units. So, “a little hotter” as my theory went, could be 10x or even 100x hotter. Definitely should have done a little more research there.
Blissfully ignorant of the potential torture I was about to inflict upon myself, I sliced a single orange habanero and added it (seeds and all) to a mason jar. I topped it off with the same American vodka and let it sit. Sure, I knew it would be finished within an hour or so, but I wanted to make sure it was nice and infused before I tasted it.
After a full day, I came back and take a sip. I expected a similar sweet bell pepper flavor with at least a little more heat. What I got was like drinking hot sauce. Mind you, I’m not saying it was unpleasant, just hot. REALLY hot. Drops in the bottom of a shot glass was plenty to experience the full potency.
Admittedly, this is much closer to what I expected with the jalapeno vodka. I wanted something so spicy you wouldn’t dare drink it straight, especially not in large quantities. Instead, I wanted something I could add a few drops or a half shot to a cocktail and easily notice that there was some capsaicin involved. If anything, the habanero vodka should be a rousing success compared to that original jalapeno vodka.
The problem, as I mulled it over, was that I didn’t have a particular use in mind for this super-spicy substance I was brewing. I started down the jalapeno vodka path just seeing where it went. What I got was drinkable on its own, a curious oddity that added a layer of flavor to whatever vodka drink I substituted it in. The habanero vodka was EXACTLY what I was aiming for, but without any idea what to do with the successful product.
I started looking for spicy cocktail ideas. Nothing really struck my fancy. Most of them were those complicated and pretentious drinks with a billion ingredients and too many steps that simply exist to give the bartender a chance to show off. I wanted something I could make relatively easily in the comfort of my own home.
A coworker suggested mixing it with seltzer. That was a curious idea. Add a dash of spicy vodka to a can of hard seltzer; it already had some alcohol in it and I had often added standard vodka to seltzers before to increase the proof. Didn’t seem like a far stretch to add a smaller portion of habanero vodka for a little bit of proof and a whole lot of heat.
I added maybe a third of a shot of habanero vodka to a can of mango hard seltzer. The initial flavor is just like the unadulterated seltzer, but a huge spike of heat comes along the middle. By the time the flavor would be fading, the heat is gone right along with it. Honestly, that’s a huge compliment. Too many spicy foods have a heat that dwells long after, and it hits a point where you just can’t do it anymore. The fact that the heat is gone as quickly as it comes, you can continue drinking and not make yourself miserable.
I’m glad I found a recipe that generates a level of heat I was attempting to create. Furthermore, I’m glad it mixes well into a hard seltzer at least. I want to keep playing with recipes to see if some other cocktail can showcase the spicy vodka well. Again, I don’t drink spicy beverages frequently, but it would be really convenient to have something on hand to MAKE a drink spicy without having to buy a whole bottle or pack of something spicy that I may sit on for ages.
If you want to try pepper vodka, it’s super easy to make. Slice a pepper, throw it in a pint mason jar, and top it off with cheap vodka. Don’t add more than one pepper and DEFINITELY don’t touch your eyes without washing your hands first. If you find any tasty cocktails with spicy spirits, PLEASE let me know.
Spicy drinks are very divisive. My first spicy beer was at an Independence Day party many moons ago. I didn’t hate it, but I also didn’t know if I liked it, either. Over the years, I tried a few other spicy beers, as well as the novel idea of putting hot sauce in a regular beer, and I’ve grown to like them occasionally. I’m not drinking spicy beer all the time, but I’ll drink one every now and then just for something different.
After trying a few spicy beers, it occurred to me that I could infuse a distilled spirit with spicy flavor on my own. I had made Jolly Rancher vodka before, how different could spicy vodka be? I sliced up a jalapeno, threw it in a pint mason jar, and filled it up with Kirkland Signature American vodka.
I let the jar sit for a few days undisturbed. I didn’t know how long the infusion process would take (turns out it takes about an hour), but I figured a couple of days would be adequate to at least taste a difference. I took a sip and it tasted… sweet. Almost like a raw bell pepper, with that fresh almost floral flavor.
It was good, but it wasn’t exactly spicy. I drank a shot here or there, but I was a little disappointed about the heat. I wanted something that I could use in small volumes to spice up a drink, not some floral vodka to mix in place of regular vodka. I could’ve thrown multiple jalapenos in the jar, but how many would it take before it actually got spicy? I let that remain a one-off experiment for a time.
A little while later, one of my wife’s coworkers gave us a couple of peppers from her garden. We had tried to grow bell peppers before with very little success. This lady had jalapenos, cayennes and habaneros in droves. With a little convincing, my wife let me use one of the habaneros for another batch of spicy vodka. I figured that habaneros were spicier than jalapenos, so I might be able to feel the heat a little more.
At the time, I didn’t realize just HOW much hotter habanero peppers are than jalapeno peppers. Where a jalapeno sits somewhere around 5,000-10,000 Scoville units, habanero peppers are typically north of 100,000 and can be as high as 800,000 Scoville units. So, “a little hotter” as my theory went, could be 10x or even 100x hotter. Definitely should have done a little more research there.
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| Source: https://www.normexgroup.com/blogs/blog-recipes/scoville-scale |
Blissfully ignorant of the potential torture I was about to inflict upon myself, I sliced a single orange habanero and added it (seeds and all) to a mason jar. I topped it off with the same American vodka and let it sit. Sure, I knew it would be finished within an hour or so, but I wanted to make sure it was nice and infused before I tasted it.
After a full day, I came back and take a sip. I expected a similar sweet bell pepper flavor with at least a little more heat. What I got was like drinking hot sauce. Mind you, I’m not saying it was unpleasant, just hot. REALLY hot. Drops in the bottom of a shot glass was plenty to experience the full potency.
Admittedly, this is much closer to what I expected with the jalapeno vodka. I wanted something so spicy you wouldn’t dare drink it straight, especially not in large quantities. Instead, I wanted something I could add a few drops or a half shot to a cocktail and easily notice that there was some capsaicin involved. If anything, the habanero vodka should be a rousing success compared to that original jalapeno vodka.
The problem, as I mulled it over, was that I didn’t have a particular use in mind for this super-spicy substance I was brewing. I started down the jalapeno vodka path just seeing where it went. What I got was drinkable on its own, a curious oddity that added a layer of flavor to whatever vodka drink I substituted it in. The habanero vodka was EXACTLY what I was aiming for, but without any idea what to do with the successful product.
I started looking for spicy cocktail ideas. Nothing really struck my fancy. Most of them were those complicated and pretentious drinks with a billion ingredients and too many steps that simply exist to give the bartender a chance to show off. I wanted something I could make relatively easily in the comfort of my own home.
A coworker suggested mixing it with seltzer. That was a curious idea. Add a dash of spicy vodka to a can of hard seltzer; it already had some alcohol in it and I had often added standard vodka to seltzers before to increase the proof. Didn’t seem like a far stretch to add a smaller portion of habanero vodka for a little bit of proof and a whole lot of heat.
I added maybe a third of a shot of habanero vodka to a can of mango hard seltzer. The initial flavor is just like the unadulterated seltzer, but a huge spike of heat comes along the middle. By the time the flavor would be fading, the heat is gone right along with it. Honestly, that’s a huge compliment. Too many spicy foods have a heat that dwells long after, and it hits a point where you just can’t do it anymore. The fact that the heat is gone as quickly as it comes, you can continue drinking and not make yourself miserable.
I’m glad I found a recipe that generates a level of heat I was attempting to create. Furthermore, I’m glad it mixes well into a hard seltzer at least. I want to keep playing with recipes to see if some other cocktail can showcase the spicy vodka well. Again, I don’t drink spicy beverages frequently, but it would be really convenient to have something on hand to MAKE a drink spicy without having to buy a whole bottle or pack of something spicy that I may sit on for ages.
If you want to try pepper vodka, it’s super easy to make. Slice a pepper, throw it in a pint mason jar, and top it off with cheap vodka. Don’t add more than one pepper and DEFINITELY don’t touch your eyes without washing your hands first. If you find any tasty cocktails with spicy spirits, PLEASE let me know.
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