Give Lemonade A Subtly Spicy Kick With Jalapeño Syrup

Lemonade is a fairly simple recipe, and you don't need much besides lemon juice, water, and sugar (and probably ice). However, sour and sweet as lemonade may be, the beverage can absolutely work with some added heat. Spicing up a lemonade for a zestier sip isn't too different from making a spicy margarita, sans liquor. So, to get some expert advice on how to do it, we spoke to mixologist Julie Reiner, who mixed up mocktails for a Nature Made x TENSPACE pop-up inspired by the Nature Made vitamins.

Reiner's first piece of advice for adding spice to lemonade (or a cocktail with lemonade) was to use a jalapeño tincture. The same way you can spice up your cooking with jalapeño powder, you can spice up your drinking with jalapeño syrup. According to Reiner: "If you wanted to use a jalapeño tincture, you could certainly give it a little spice in that way. You want something that's going to mesh with the drink." Reiner specifically says she's made lots of cocktails with jalapeño syrup or a dash of hellfire bitters (a kind of habanero bitters designed to go with tequila and mezcal), and that these can easily mesh with lemonade's flavor, too.

Jalapeño syrup isn't difficult to make: Julie Reiner's method is to put fresh jalapeños through a juice extractor, and then combine one part jalapeño juice with two parts sugar to make the syrup. She says you can also try removing seeds from some fruits: "If we're going to make a batch, depending on how spicy we want it to be, remove the seeds from some of them and keep the seeds in a couple." This allows you to tone down the spice without removing that green pepper flavor entirely (although there's some debate over this, as pepper seeds actually don't contain capsaicin, the compound that make them spicy).You can also control spice by measuring how much syrup you add to your lemonade — start small and increase to taste. 

Reiner uses a juice extractor rather than a blender for jalapeños, but she says you can also get juice by blending peppers and then using a cheesecloth to squeeze it through. Muddling your jalapeño slices — throwing them directly into the syrup to release flavor — can work as well. Be careful of that jalapeño juice getting sprayed into the air because the pepper's capsaicin is a major irritant. And it's also a good idea to get that jalapeño off your hands after you're done juicing it. Be just as cautious if you're juicing lemons, for its juice can make your hands sticky. The lemon and jalapeño combo is worth it though, just keep these tips in mind.