Heat Up Happy Hour With These 7 Spicy Cocktails From a Peppery Margarita to a Warming Whiskey Ginger

It’s a fitting moniker for a cocktail with a spicy kick, but the Kicker Rock is actually named for a dramatic volcanic formation located in the Galápagos Islands. I got wise to the drink and its namesake on a cruise with Ecoventura, whose bespoke cocktail list features this rhum agricole–based libation. Viewed from the north, Kicker Rock resembles a boot. From the south, however, it looks like its other moniker, Sleeping Lion. That could be the drink’s secret name, for its chipotle-and-Tajín heat sneaks slyly up through layers of bitter Campari and sweet pineapple, sour lemon and woodsy herb. 

The stealth approach and euphoric finish describe two of the three superpowers that spicy cocktails have. Most get their heat from capsaicin (the fiery compound in chiles), which triggers your mouth not only to taste, but also to feel sensations, including pain. Then your body fights back with bliss-inducing endorphins and dopamine. No wonder Tabasco-spiked Bloody Marys are so popular! Add a shot of vodka to the mix, and you’ve concocted one heck of a party. 

But there’s a third effect. “Compounds such as capsaicin found in chile peppers may enhance other tastes,” says Charles Spence, author of Gastrophysics: The New Science of Eating. So spiciness can also theoretically make a drink taste better. That’s where mixologists come in. Andres Damerval, owner of the bar Nicanor in Ecuador and Ecoventura’s onboard mixologist, uses the heat of chipotle hot sauce to enhance the bitterness and fruitiness of the drink. “Spice improves all of it. It pops in the mouth,” he says. 

“Spice makes you want to keep coming back,” agrees mixologist Juliette Larrouy, who devised the tingly Wild Gin & Tonic for Austin’s El Raval. Spiked with yuzu and Szechuan peppercorn, the drink nods to chef-owner Laila Bazahm’s mash-up of Spanish and Asian cuisines. “Pepper is a match for a Gin & Tonic,” notes Larrouy. “And citrus is a match. [The taste of] Szechuan peppercorn is between the two.” The spice’s mouth-tingling properties, which come from a compound called hydroxy-alpha-sanshool rather than capsaicin, boost the cocktail’s allure.

Katie Button, chef-owner of Cúrate in Asheville, North Carolina, dials up the heat for a different Spanish drink. Her Spicy Rebujito is faithful to the original’s sherry, mint, and lemon-lime soda, but with a jolt of serrano chile, whose “clean heat hits you in the palate but doesn’t change the drink’s overall flavor,” she says. She serves it on balmy Southern evenings. But its spiciness also gives the drink a homegrown touch. “America is a country that puts hot sauce on anything,” says Button. “And I’m not mad about that.” —Betsy Andrews