For the past few summers I’ve noticed that many of my favorite restaurants have featured spicy cocktails, notably the habanero margarita and the jalapeño margarita. So when a friend at work brought in jalapeños from his garden, I thought it would be a good use of the jalapeños to infuse them into tequila. My 17-year-old son declared that this would be the most Latino thing I have ever done.
A quick online search lead me to several recipes for infusing the jalapeños to the tequila, which is actually remarkably easier than I thought. I settled with a technique from Show Me the Yummy blog. The process was simply to pour a bottle of tequila over three jalapeños sliced. From, you store it in a cool dark place.
The good people at Show Me the Yummy recommend infusing the peppers with the tequila for a minimum of two days and a maximum of one week. I went with the two-day option and found the infusion to be so strong that I had to consume it as part of a margarita, the taste of which was incredibly sharp and overwhelming of all the other ingredients in the cocktail.
This past weekend, my colleague brought in more jalapeños from his garden. Once again, I decided to infuse the peppers with a bottle of tequila. This time, however, I did a 24-hour infusion. The result yielded a tequila that could be consumed in shots and made for a smoother margarita, akin to the one I order at El Paso Restaurant.
Next post will feature a recipe for a cocktail using the jalapeño-infused tequila.
Buen Provecho Amigos 