Tequila, jalapeño & pineapple — Spice Affair BH
India and Mexico share something fundamental: both cultures have an unironic, deeply felt relationship with chili heat. Indian cooking has been shaped by chili (brought by the Portuguese in the 16th century, now so embedded it seems primordial) in the same way Mexican cooking has. The Indian Heat Margarita at Spice Affair honours this shared love — jalapeño (slightly milder, more vegetal than the green chilies of Indian cooking) provides the heat, pineapple the tropical sweetness, and Tres Generaciones blanco tequila the agave backbone. It is a Mexican cocktail built with Indian sensibility: heat as a feature, not a footnote.
Jalapeño heat varies significantly between individual peppers — taste a slice before muddling. Three slices with seeds is spicy; three without seeds is mild. Fresh pineapple juice (not canned) is important here — its brightness and acidity are essential to the balance. Tres Generaciones is the Spice Affair spec, but any high-quality blanco tequila works.
Substitute a serrano chili for significantly more heat. Use mango juice instead of pineapple for a mango-heat margarita.
Spice Affair brings South Asian flavour to the heart of Beverly Hills with a cocktail programme that is as polished as its address demands. The bar uses Indian spices — saffron, chai masala, tamarind — as primary flavour drivers rather than garnishes, and pairs them with premium spirits to create drinks that are unapologetically luxurious.
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