Updated Jan 16, 2024
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Habanero Tincture Recipe
If you love the spicy, fiery kick from chili peppers, try this quick, and easy recipe to make habanero tincture at home for a convenient solution to add the burn and distinct flavors of habanero peppers to your cooking and drinks
This simple homemade habanero tincture recipe is very easy to make with only two ingredients and is great for adding the distinctive flavor of habanero peppers, along with their heat, to kick up the heat in just about any dish.
It’s also the perfect way to elevate your kombucha mocktails to new heights and simulate the burn of alcohol in your next mocktail.
Why USe Habanero Tincture?
Impart the flavor and heat of habanero peppers in your cooking
Enhance your cooking (and cocktail making) with the ability to add small amounts of habanero flavor and heat until it reaches the desired level. This enables you to add the bold flavors and heat of hot habanero peppers directly into your dish while reducing the chances that of overdoing it and making it too hot for your preference.
How to use habanero extract in cooking:
- Use it to dose chili to individualize heat level by bowl; Some like it hot while others may not!
- Put a few drops in your next Bloody Mary to kick up the heat without diluting it with more Bloody Mary mix
- Add a couple drops to your your taco to increase the heat level
- Mix some in with BBQ Sauce, ketchup or marinades
Simulate the “burn” of alcohol in mocktails
A majority of individuals link the flavor of high-proof alcohol with a “burning sensation,” which is scientifically recognized as a trigeminal sensation. This sensation is sensed through pain nerves rather than taste buds. To replicate this sensation in a nonalcoholic drink, we can include ingredients that elicit a similar response.
To replicate the sensations of alcohol in a non-alcoholic drink, we can add ingredients that create similar effects. One way to achieve the “burn” of alcohol is is by using spicy ingredients such as ginger or chilies. The spiciness in chilies is caused by capsaicin and although the compounds involved are not the same as alcohol, they stimulate the same nerves as alcohol and are therefore a suitable analog.
Read more about the science of making great mocktails at how to make great mocktails.
Ingredients For A Simple Habanero Tincture
Habanero pepper: Habaneros are one of the most common chili peppers and add bright heat to food and drinks without burning ones taste buds. Habanero peppers with their fruity, floral, sweet pungent flavors and concentrated heat give non-alcoholic cocktails that subtle burn emulates the sensation you get from ethanol when drinking alcohol.
Vodka: Vodka is my preferred solvent for making tinctures as it has a relatively mild taste and is typically affordable. Alcoholic spirits are typically around 40% alcohol by volume (ABV), which is the ideal concentration for extracting the the pepper’s flavors and capsaicin (the heat) as well as tannins, water-soluble glycosides, and certain alkaloids.
Alternative (no alcohol): Use Vinegar: If you wish to make a completely alcohol free version of the habanero tincture, distilled apple cider vinegar is the next best choice.
Why Habanero Peppers?
Habanero peppers are among the spiciest chili peppers in the world and are well-known for their intense heat and unique flavor:
- Habanero peppers have a fruity, almost sweet flavor with a hint of citrus, which distinguishes them from other chili peppers.
- The intensity of these flavors varies depending on factors such as ripeness and growing conditions
- Habanero peppers are very hot, with a Scoville Heat Units (SHU) rating that typically ranges from 100,000 to 350,000 or more. (The Scoville scale is a measurement of a pepper’s spiciness, with higher numbers indicating greater heat)
- Habaneros are significantly hotter than jalapeños, which typically only have an SHU between 2,500 to 8,000. They are even hotter than serrano peppers, which typically range from 10,000 to 23,000 SHU.
- Habaneros are not the absolute hottest peppers available. For instance, the Carolina Reaper, one of the hottest chili peppers in the world, has been recorded with a peak Scoville rating of over 2.2 million.
What About Other Peppers?
I love the distinctive citrusy and slightly sweet flavors of the habanero peppers but you can make this recipe with whatever chili peppers you have on hand. Here are some of the hottest options if you really want to crank up the heat try making a spicy tincture with one of these:
- Carolina Reaper 1,641,183 – 2,200,000 SHU; Carolina Reapers are the hottest available pepper in the world! Sweet and fruity initially, followed by intense heat. Has a hint of smokiness.
Trinidad Moruga Scorpion 1,200,000 – 2,009,231 SHU; Moruga Scorpions are native to Trinidad and Tobago and essentially as hot as a Carolina Reaper. They are fruity with a floral undertone, followed by an intense, lingering heat.
7 Pot Douglah (aka Chocolate 7 Pot) 923,889 – 2,009,231 SHU; Chocolate 7 Pot are unique in that they are the one of the hottest peppers around that are not red. They have a rich, earthy, and slightly sweet flavor with a very intense heat.
Ghost Pepper (aka Bhut Jolokia) 1,041,427 – 1,853,936 SHU; Ghost peppers are one of the most well known hot chili peppers as it was popularized in pepper eating challenges and on social media. Ghost peppers are fruity and floral with an intense, slow-building heat.
Why Alcohol for a Habanero Tincture?
Alcohol is commonly used to make tinctures for several reasons.
First, alcohol is an excellent solvent that can extract a wide range of active compounds from the plant material meaning an herbal tincture made with alcohol can contain a higher concentration of active ingredients than other solvents, such as water.
Second, alcohol acts as a preservative which helps to extend the shelf life of the tincture. The high alcohol content inhibits the growth of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms that can cause spoilage and degradation of the tincture.
Finally, alcohol is readily available and relatively cheap, making it a convenient , cost-effective solvent for creating tinctures. It is also a relatively inexpensive option compared to other solvents.
It is important to note that the use of alcohol may not be suitable for everyone, especially for those who abstain from alcohol due to personal or health reasons. In such cases, alternative solvents, such as apple cider vinegar, can be used to make herbal tinctures.
Generally, most dishes and kombucha mocktails only require a few drops of habanero tincture to achieve the desired effect so the alcohol contribution is negligible.
How to Make a Habanero Tincture
Making the habanero tincture is a simple and quick process. Essentially you let a finely chopped habanero steep in vodka to dissolve the capsaicin and habanero flavors into the vodka.
Here are the basic steps to create a fiery habanero tincture:
Warning: Wear latex or rubber gloves when handling habanero chilies. The oils will remain on your hands and can later cause burning if you touch your eyes, mouth or nose.
Prepare habanero: Remove stem from the habanero
Combine: Add pepper and vodka in the bowl of a blender
Blend: Blend the mixture for several minutes until pepper is chopped into small bits
Steep: Pour the mixture into a glass container and let it steep
Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer
Habanero Tincture Recipe
Yield: 1/2 cup • Active time: 20 minutes • Total time: about a week
This potent habanero extract recipe does not require much preparation or special equipment to make
Ingredients:
1 fresh habanero (or other hot chili) pepper
1/2 cup 80 proof vodka, 100ml
Instructions:
Warning: Wear latex or rubber gloves when handling habanero chilies. The oils will remain on your hands and can later cause burning if you touch your eyes, mouth or nose.
- Remove stem from habanero by gently pulling it off or slicing a small amount off the top of the pepper
- Place the stemmed habanero in a blender along with the vodka
- Blend the mixture until it becomes somewhat smooth, which should take about a minute or two
- Pour the mixture into a glass container and let it steep for a few days (or longer)
- Use a fine mesh strainer to filter the habanero tincture into a glass container like to use medicine dropper bottles like these
- Store in a cool dark place for up to 2 years
Nutrition Information:
Serving size:1 drop
Other Homemade Tinctures & Extracts
Here are some other tinctures and extracts that you can make at home to enhance your next mocktail:
Ginger Simple Syrup: A cooked ginger syrup which increases the burn level of the spice compounds in ginger
Over-Steeped Tea: The astringency of this concentrated tea emulates the drying effect of alcohol
Spruce Tip Extract: Infuses drinks with fresh evergreen botanicals yielding gin-like notes
Helping you learn to brew kombucha, find inspiration for new kombucha flavors and use kombucha to make kombucha mocktails
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2 Comments
Question what is the SHU for ONE DROP of red savina habanero tincture (not dropper full) I use vodka as base.
Hi Charles, thank you for the question.
You raise an interesting question which is challenging to answer precisely; however, the SHU of your homemade extract should be in the 70,000 – 115,000 SHU range. I arrived at that based on the following:
1. SHU of a Red Savina Habanero: 350,000 – 750,000
2. Weight of a fresh pepper: ~20 grams
3. Quantity of Vodka used to extract capsaicin: 100 grams
Assuming the extraction via the vodka is efficient, the capsaicin in the habanero will be diluted 5 times since the volume (weight) of the vodka is 5x the weight of the pepper.
If you want to make a hotter extract using these peppers, you could try this:
Red Savina Peppers have about 15mg/gram of capsaicin which means each pepper has about 300mg total capsaicin. The maximum solubility of capsaicin in vodka is about 30mg/ml. You can use three peppers to maximize this number or reduce the vodka used to 1/8 cup (33 ml) for a single pepper. This should yield an extract much closer to the heat range of the pepper you use to make it.