How to Control Heat Levels in Spicy Cocktails
-- Restaurants & Institutions, November 2, 2009
While spicy cocktails can heat up beverage sales, spice alone won’t carry a cocktail if it’s overbearingly piquant. Bartenders share some tips on heat management.
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| Jacques Bezuidenhout making a row of Bell Pepper Smashes at Square 1682 |
* Add chiles gradually. “You can always add more spice,” says Jacques Bezuidenhout, director of the cocktail program at Square 1682 in Philadelphia. “But if you add too much, you can’t take it out. I slice slivers off the sides [of chiles], and I don’t use the seeds,” he says.
* To maintain consistent levels of heat, use infusions such as spicy simple syrups. “They’re the safer way to go,” says Neyah White, bartender at Nopa in San Francisco.
* But don’t overdo it on infusions. “It’s a good rule of thumb to either use an infused alcohol or a spicy syrup [rather than both],” says Kara Newman, author of “Spice & Ice” (Chronicle, 2009).
* A little mystery stirs up interest. “I always have a secret ingredient in every cocktail,” says Rawad Semaan, beverage director of The Grove in Houston. For example, he adds a tiny bit of Thai chile to ginger margaritas.
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