The team at Bittermens loves spicy foods — habaneros appear in everything from cream sauces to omelets at home — but they found that when people try to make spicy cocktails, the flavor often falls short. The problem isn't the heat; it's how the heat is incorporated. Simply putting commercial hot sauces, sambal, or sriracha into a cocktail throws off the balance. Their solution: a shrub. Shrubs are classically refreshing fruit-and-vinegar-based syrups sweetened and diluted to make a beverage since revolutionary times — so why not make a hot pepper shrub? Fortified with alcohol to better extract the flavors from the spices and made much more concentrated, you only need drops instead of ounces to get the desired effect: a good ol' bit of heat.
How to Use: A spicy Margarita, a fiery Bloody Mary, or a controlled burn in any cocktail that can take it.
