Fresh pineapple makes for a delicious and nutritious snack, but it can get boring fast if you always eat it straight. You don't have to pull out a cookbook to spice up your pineapple though. You can simply drizzle it with caramel or top it with whipped cream.
The only issue with these and other pineapple upgrades is that they usually make it sweeter. Sometimes, you want a more complex snack. That's where Tajín comes in.
Tajín is a simple spice mix made predominately from three dried ground chili peppers (chiles de árbol, guajillo, and pasilla), sea salt, and dehydrated lime juice. And when you pair it properly, something it does perfectly with pineapple, it sings. When looking specifically at fresh, ripe pineapple, it's the salt and lime that have the biggest impact.
A little salt brings out pineapple's sweetness and helps cut down its "tingle," while the sourness and flavor of the lime plays well with pineapple's natural tartness. Then, after each delicious bite, the chili powder adds a dash of mild heat to pineapple's aftertaste. What does Tajín taste like? Tajín, which is both the brand name and shorthand for Tajín's original Clásico seasoning, has three key flavors.
The first you taste is salt. Tajín uses small salt nuggets because it's mainly used as a topper. These little bits are just large enough not to melt into food, so you always experience a short, sharp burst of saltiness.
On fresh, ripe pineapple, that burst quickly gives way to sweetness like a .