Chili Pepper

Spices

The pungent fruit of plants in the genus Capsicum, used fresh, dried, smoked, powdered, or as a sauce to give drinks heat, savory depth, and color. Its best-known beverage roles are in chocolate drinks, savory tomato and beer mixes, spiced rims, and modern infused syrups and sodas.

Documented in

How chili pepper is prepared

Chili is steeped or blended into hot chocolate and corn-based drinks. It appears as hot sauce or cayenne in tomato- and clam-tomato-based mixes such as the Virgin Mary and Virgin Caesar, and as chili powder or salt on glass rims. It is also infused into simple syrups, shrubs, tinctures, and craft sodas, and is paired with tropical fruit, lime, and tamarind in Mexican-style fruit drinks and frozen treats.

Other preparations

Beverages using this preparation · 5
FERAL
N°1 White Beet Hop Szechuan Pepper
Still white0% ABV
prepared as Hop and Chili Pepper Extract

FERAL uses Hop and Chili Pepper Extract in N°1 White Beet Hop Szechuan Pepper: a botanical extract of hops and chili pepper. The extraction method is not specified.[4][5]

FERAL
N°2 White Beet Ginger Allspice
Still white0% ABV
prepared as Ginger, Allspice, Juniper and Chili Extract

FERAL uses Ginger, Allspice, Juniper and Chili Extract in N°2 White Beet Ginger Allspice: a botanical extract of ginger, allspice, juniper berries and chili pepper. The extraction method is not specified.[6]

FERAL
N°3 Red Beet Pepper Thyme Oak
Still red0% ABV
prepared as Black Pepper, Thyme, Oak and Chili Extract

FERAL uses Black Pepper, Thyme, Oak and Chili Extract in N°3 Red Beet Pepper Thyme Oak: a botanical extract of black pepper, thyme, oak and chili pepper. No oak origin, toasting method or extraction technique is specified here.[7]

FERAL
N°4 Red Beet Lavender Juniper
Still red0% ABV
prepared as Juniper, Lavender and Chili Extract

FERAL uses Juniper, Lavender and Chili Extract in N°4 Red Beet Lavender Juniper: a botanical extract of juniper berries, lavender and chili pepper. The extraction method is not specified.[8]

FERAL
N°6 Cook The Mountain
Still white0% ABV
prepared as Fennel, Linden, Mountain Pine and Herb Extract

The pine in this extract is mountain pine.[9][10]

In depth

Origins in the Americas

Chili peppers rank among the oldest crops of the Americas. Humans ate Capsicum fruits in the Andean region thousands of years before Europeans arrived, and farmers domesticated them separately in highland South America, the Amazon, and Mexico. The English word itself comes from the Nahuatl name for the plant, a reminder of how deeply chili was rooted in Mesoamerican foodways. In that world, chili was not only a food seasoning. It also became one of the characteristic flavorings of the region's ceremonial and everyday drinks.[1]

Chili in Mesoamerican Cacao and Corn Drinks

Before the Spanish conquest, peoples of Mesoamerica prepared frothy beverages from ground cacao. These were often seasoned with chili along with flowers, vanilla, or other botanicals, making a bitter, spicy drink very different from later sweetened European chocolate. Corn-based drinks in the atole family were also sometimes flavored with chili; chileatole is the best-known savory example. This pairing of chili with cacao and maize survives in Mexican home and street drinks. It is the ancestor of today's widely imitated spiced hot chocolate.[1]

Global Spread After 1492

Members of Columbus's expeditions brought chilies to Spain in the 1490s. Because the plants thrived in temperate gardens, unlike tropical black pepper vines, they soon spread across Europe. Portuguese and Spanish traders then carried them to Africa, Arabia, South and Southeast Asia, the Pacific, and East Asia during the sixteenth century. Chilies quickly became part of local cooking and folk medicine in many of these places. Even so, outside the Americas they generally stayed a kitchen spice rather than a common drink ingredient for several centuries.[1]

The Bloody Mary and the Virgin Mary

Chili entered mainstream Western drinking through savory tomato cocktails in the early twentieth century. The Bloody Mary took shape in the 1920s and 1930s. Bartender Fernand Petiot later described seasoning his version with cayenne pepper alongside salt, black pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and lemon. Hot pepper sauce eventually became a standard addition, and the drink grew into a fixture of American brunch. Its alcohol-free counterpart, the Virgin Mary (also called a Bloody Shame), keeps the spiced tomato base and garnishes and simply leaves out the spirit. It is one of the oldest and most widely ordered chili-accented non-alcoholic mixed drinks.[2]

The Michelada in Mexico and Central America

In Mexico, chili became central to the michelada, a beer drink said to have developed from the 1960s onward. In its basic form, beer is mixed with lime and salt. Many versions add chili-based sauces, sliced fresh chilies such as serrano, and a rim of chili powder and salt on a chilled glass. Regional recipes vary widely, and Central American versions favor tiny, fiery local peppers such as chiltepe. The same seasoning approach is easily applied to non-alcoholic beer or sparkling water. It has also spread well beyond Mexico, reaching the United States and other markets as a popular flavor category.[3]

Contemporary Uses

Today chili is one of the most versatile accents in both craft and non-alcoholic drink making. Bartenders and home makers steep fresh or dried chilies into syrups, shrubs, and tinctures. They pair jalapeño or habanero with citrus, pineapple, mango, or cucumber, and they finish glasses with chili-lime salts. In Mexico and among Mexican communities abroad, chili powder and chili-spiked chamoy flavor fruit drinks and frozen beverages. Heat levels vary enormously, from mild peppers to varieties rated in the hundreds of thousands of Scoville units or more, so careful dosing and tasting is standard practice. Makers often favor mild, aromatic types, or strain early, to add warmth without overwhelming a drink.[1]