I used to go to a coffee shop ( in a different state) where they made a cayenne pepper epsresso drink. It was a great drink strong cofee flavor with a kick of cayenne. The barrista mentioned that this drink only works in small portions ( i.e. size small cup.)
Is anyone familiar with this drink? I'd love some ideas how to recreate it at home. What is the best way to attempt to replicate this flavor? I was thinking adding varying degrees of cayenne to espresso and find the best combination, but not sure if I should be adding other ingredients.
Best Answer
I'm not a professional barrista but I spend a lot of time drinking expresso based drinks and I would suggest that you start with a latte base (for a small drink, that would be two shots of expresso and hot steamed milk to the top) and add cayenne pepper to it. I would also sugest that you only add about a 1/2 teaspoon at first. You could also add chocolate to create a mole type drink and calm down the heat of the pepper, if needed. Use a dark chocolate, if availible, as you don't want it to be to sweet if you are trying to highlight the spice.
Make sure that you stir it all the way so that you don't get uneven distrubution of the pepper, I would actually add the pepper right after the the shots and stir then, and then again after adding the milk. Also, don't forget that the temperature of the beverage is going to enhance the heat that you get from the pepper, so for the less spice tolerate you will need to tone it way down.