How Hong Kong’s best bars and mixologists embraced spicy cocktails
Spicy cocktails – think jalapeño-infused liquors or drinks spiced with peppercorns – are still niche, but they’re increasingly seen on menus across the city
Among the perks of living in arguably one of the most mixology-literate cities in the world is witnessing the adoption of new flavours, ingredients and techniques in real time. The Savory Project opened in 2024 with an umami-first focus, typified in its signature Thai Beef Salad cocktail, and Hong Kong has since seen an explosion of savoury offerings. Among these, spicy cocktails are beginning to gain particular traction.
Recently, more bars are making spice a mainstay on their menus. Terrible Baby offers the Vida de Piña, which uses a jalapeño-infused base spirit. Jin Bo Law Skybar introduced the Bei Fung Tong in February, incorporating typhoon shelter-style ingredients into a Bloody Mary twist. Sugar King rotates its menu regularly, but served the Fortune Daiquiri during Lunar New Year, adding Sichuan peppercorns to a classic daiquiri format.
Jin Bo Law’s Bei Fung Tong, a typhoon shelter-inspired Bloody Mary. Photo: Handout
It may still be too early, however, to label spicy cocktails a full-blown movement. “There is interest in spicy cocktails among Hong Kong’s drinkers,” says Alex Pun, co-founder of Bar Oasis and Orchard. “But it’s a niche rather than a mainstream preference. Sometimes it’s hard to impress every spicy cocktail drinker – everyone has different tolerances of heat.”
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Pun notes that several elements are needed for a novel drink type to catch on. “Hong Kong drinkers are curious and receptive to spicy cocktails,” he says, “but mainstream success requires more than heat. The concept must be well-executed, reproducible, well-told and sensibly matched to climate and pricing.”
Soho House’s Picante. Photo: Handout
Spicy cocktails are a relatively recent phenomenon, emerging only in the last few decades. According to drinks authority Punch, Julio Bermejo – then at Tommy’s Mexican Restaurant in San Francisco – created the Tommy’s Margarita by replacing orange liqueur with agave nectar. In the 2000s, he began infusing habanero peppers into tequila, firmly linking spicy cocktails with tequila for much of the past 20 years. Hong Kong has seen its own variations, such as Soho House’s Picante and Coa’s La Chinesca, which adds cilantro, jalapeño brine, ginger honey, sesame oil and tajín to the mix.
