I'm thankful for... Habanero-infused tequila!

Well, it's the Saturday after thanksgiving, and of course i'm still full from all the usual suspects (turkey, stuffing, mashies, etc). Our family has done the same classic dishes for decades now, and they never really get old. At the same time, however, we're always looking for something new and exciting to try....this year, we made habanero-infused tequila! Before I get into the nitty gritty of the process and the final product, i'd like to talk about habaneros a little bit.

Habaneros are small (.8-2.5 inch), orange-red chili peppers with a thin skin and wrinkled shape. They are the spiciest chili pepper, next to the "ghost chili." Spicy heat is rated on what's called the "Scoville scale," which measures the capscaisin content in a pepper. Capscaisin is a chemical compound that stimulates nerve receptors and enables us to hence feel the "pain" or spicy heat of chilis, and the highest concentration in peppers is found in the seeds and pulp. To put this in perspective, pimentos or peperoncinis have a rating of 100-500 SHUs (Scoville heat units). Jalapenos have a rating of 2,500-8,000 and habaneros have a rating of 350,000-600,000. As I mentioned before, the ghost pepper is the only chili spicier than a habanero, and it has a rating of 855,000-1,000,000 SHUs. FYI, pepper spray has a rating of around 5 million SHUs. I've never experienced pepper spray, or a ghost chili for that matter, and frankly i dont want to! Habaneros are damn spicy enough.

So, all this being said, we weren't sure how to proceed. I had asked the bartender at Tacolicious (in the Marina District here in SF) how they make their habanero tequila, and he said they just chop some up and let them marinate in a container of blanco tequila for a few hours. Now there are a lot of unknowns with this recipe: what's the ratio of tequila to habaneros? with or without the seeds? in a freezer, fridge or at room temp? So we consulted the Internet for any additional details. One blog said to remove the seeds, and let the spice slowly integrate, this way you get more of the actual flavor from the habanero. This seemed reasonable to us, so we chopped up 3 habaneros, slicing them into strips length-wise (seeds removed), and put them into 750ml of blanco tequila.

We tasted it every hour or so, and it had a nice tingle of spice in the back of the throat, but not enough (we had to take into consideration the juice that we'd be mixing in there, thus diluting it). So we put it in the fridge over night, and after 24 or so hours total, we decided that the spice level had plateaued, and we took out the habaneros.

So, margaritas: we mixed 1 part tequila with 2 parts pog juice (passion orange guava), some fresh lime, and a splash of cointreau.

I thought it was delicious. Some of my family members thought it was missing something, perhaps the pog juice wasn't ideal (we were originally looking for plain passion fruit nectar). In general though, I thought the spiciness was perfect, the flavors were awesome, and it definitely tasted less fake-sweet than house margaritas. Next time we might try dicing the habaneros smaller and/or keeping some of the seeds to get it a little spicier.

Habanero Thanksgiving everyone!