Rosé has a way of pleasing the masses, with its pale pink hue and range of flavors. From floral to berry and bright, it’s the wine category most associated with social media fame. But even its most beloved viral tag #roséallday, which continues to trend, could not have prepared it for its latest viral moment: spicy rosé.
Spicy is the name of the game when it comes to Margaritas, but spicy rosé? That’s a new one for even the most extreme rosé lover.
The trend, which originated on TikTok, has since been recreated numerous times and has generated lots of buzz within both the dinks and social media spaces. To learn more about the intriguing craze, VinePair spoke with TikTok influencer and the drink’s creator, Allyssa Marshall.
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Marshall, better known as Allyssa in the Kitchen on her platforms, has always had a thing for spicy cocktails — more specifically, cocktails enhanced by the subtle heat of jalapeños. But going viral wasn’t exactly what she had in mind when she first sliced jalapeños and dropped them into her glass of rosé.
During the spring of this year, she took on a dare offered by one of her nearly 400,000 TikTok followers, combining her love of hot peppers with rosé. She was blown away but the taste. “I have a happy hour segment I do on TikTok where my followers know me for adding jalapeños to everything,” Marshall says. “Now I can’t drink rosé without them.”
The drink shares a similar flavor profile to spicy Margaritas — a bit of sweetness from the fruit entangled with spicy notes from the pepper. “It gives the rosé a nice kick and kiss of heat,” she says.
Marshall explains that, though the peppers were first simply sliced and dropped into the glass when sipping her now-famous drink, she likes to infuse the flavor of the pepper into the wine.
“Jalapeños can be tricky and range in heat due to ripeness, so I’ve learned to adjust accordingly,” she says. For spicier jalapeños, Marshall recommends adding the peppers to the glass then swirling and letting it sit for about five minutes to absorb the flavor.
If you’re attempting to recreate the drink at home, Marshall also recommends keeping the internal elements of the pepper in mind. The seeds can be annoying when sipping, so taking them out beforehand is a good idea, she says. The ribs, however, hold a good deal of heat so it’s nice to keep them in for a lingering spicy flavor.
Unlike other viral TikTok trends that quickly cool off after a brief moment in the spotlight (remember when everyone was combining balsamic vinegar and sparkling water to mimic the taste of cola?), Marshall’s spicy rosé seems to have staying power. In fact, with growing interest from her followers, she’s even created a spinoff spicy frosé recipe, which is currently embarking on its own viral journey.