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When Christopher Columbus straggled ashore in the Bahama Islands in late 1492, he got several things wrong. The most obvious mistake was that he was not in India. One of the lesser-known mistakes is that in trying to describe a native fiery flavoring he encountered, he mistakenly used a Sanskrit word.

He called the native chiles “peppers,” and we have been dealing with that mistake ever since. Black pepper is native to India, where it has been cultivated and used in cooking since at least 2000 BCE. The word “pepper” comes from the Sanskrit word “pippali.



” Black pepper is of the genus Piper and is completely unrelated to the New World chile pepper (chile comes from the Nahuatl word “chilli”) from the genus Capsicum. About the only thing both ingredients share is piquancy. But that piquancy is particularly important, especially in cocktails.

Black pepper doesn’t continue to impart heat like chile peppers do. Chile peppers also vary in intensity throughout the year. Gardeners will tell you that high ambient heat and less water will make chile peppers much, much hotter.

As we enter the summer months, we might want to keep that in mind — especially if we like any of the new spiced cocktails making their way on to restaurant menus. There are several ways to regulate heat in cocktails. One is by using chile liqueurs where the heat register is mitigated by the producer.

Another way is to strain the chiles out of the drink before serving. You can also remove the se.

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