How To Spice Up Your Ice Cubes For Better Cocktails

When making cocktails, ice isn't often considered a star ingredient, and can sometimes be thrown into a drink as an afterthought. To add a creative twist to your cocktails, however, you can turn plain, flavorless ice into a burst of spice and flavor by adding fresh ingredients like spicy peppers. Jalapeños are perfect for a mildly spicy kick, while serranos and habaneros add a more significant punch. Spicing up your ice doesn't require much effort either: Simply fill your ice cube tray, leaving space to add one or two pepper slices before placing it in the freezer. When you're ready to drink, pop a cube or two into your cocktail, and let the spice slowly release as the ice melts, making your cocktail even better as time goes on. 

For the best cocktail pairing, try mixing your pepper-infused ice cubes into cocktails that already have a kick, like a spicy margarita or bloody mary. You can also turn up the heat on other classic cocktails, like a mojito, which offsets the spice beautifully with its fresh mint and lime flavors. Adding peppers to ice not only provides a kick to your drink, but also creates a more visually striking presentation, with vibrant pops of red or green and abstract shapes from the peppers.

If you want to get the most out of your peppers and evenly distribute their flavor, try blending chopped peppers with water in a blender before pouring the mixture into your ice cube molds. Experiment with different ways to prepare your peppers by removing the seeds, roasting, or pickling them.

Additional ingredients — like leftover lime juice or sprigs of mint — can also create zesty, fragrant ice cubes. For a bright, sweeter cocktail version of this spicy ice, blend watermelon, peppers, simple syrup, ice, and your alcohol of choice for a boozy watermelon slushie. Similarly, you can blend mango and pineapple with peppers and water before freezing to create a tropical-inspired spicy margarita. If you're a heat fanatic but don't have fresh peppers on hand, hot sauce or dried cayenne pepper powder can also be mixed into ice cubes for a spicy boost in any drink.