Jalapeno sparkling water, three ways
The unsweetened infusion, the syrup, and the ratio that makes the finished drink.
In season: Peak July to September. Available year round and the winter ones run milder, so taste before you commit to a count.
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Infused, unsweetened
Use
1 jalapeno per 1 litre, sliced into rings. Seeds and white pith left in for heat, cut out for green pepper flavour on its own.
Method
Slice, drop into cold still water, refrigerate. Taste with a spoon at 20 minutes and again every 10 after that. Capsaicin barely dissolves in cold water, so what you are mostly extracting here is the grassy pepper flavour with a low background heat.
Time
20 minutes light, 45 minutes to an hour for as far as cold water will go. Pull the rings the moment it tastes right, because it keeps creeping for another 15 minutes after they come out.
Sparkling
Still water for the steep. You are going to be opening the jar to taste every ten minutes and a bottle of sparkling goes flat while you do that. Top the strained infusion afterwards.
Keeps
3 days refrigerated with the pepper removed. The heat fades faster than the flavour does, so by day 3 it is green pepper water.
The syrup
Ratio
2 jalapenos, sliced : 1 cup sugar : 1 cup water
Method
Simmer the sugar and water until clear, add the sliced peppers, simmer 5 minutes, then steep off the heat 20 minutes. Taste at 10. Strain.
Keeps
3 weeks refrigerated
Note
The syrup is where actual heat comes from. Capsaicin dissolves poorly in cold water and readily in hot sugar syrup, which is why an hour-long cold infusion is mild and a five minute simmer is not. Wash your hands with soap and hot water after slicing; cold water does not move capsaicin and it will find your eye three hours later.
The finished soda
1/2 oz syrup to 6 oz sparkling water, over ice, hard squeeze of lime
Start at half an ounce. You can add another quarter, you cannot take any back out.
The shrub version
2 sliced jalapenos in 1 cup cider vinegar for 5 days at room temperature, strain, stir in 3/4 cup sugar. Keeps 2 months. This is the best jalapeno version of the three because vinegar pulls capsaicin out far better than water does.
What doesn't work: Leaving the rings in the jug and walking away. Cold water is slow to pick up heat right up until it is not, and a jalapeno left in overnight gives a drink that tastes fine for two seconds and then burns the back of your throat. Set a timer for 20 minutes.
Goes with: LimePineappleMangoCucumber