Thinking ahead to Cinco de Mayo? Bring something hot to the party—a bottle of Stoli Hot vodka, with jalapeño flavor and a hint of chipotle smoke. You can also make your own (recipe below).

Introduced last year as a new flavor, Stoli Hot is a reformulated version of the 1962 flavor, Pepper (Pertsovka). Another 1962 flavor, Honey and Herb (Okhotnichya), is now called Stoli Sticki. They were the brand’s first flavored vodkas, and the freshening up of the concepts was a 50th-anniversary celebration.

Stoli Hot mixes well with lime juice, mango nectar, orange juice, and pineapple juice. We loved it in a frozen mango Margarita, the flavors echoing our favorite flavor of paleta (Mexican ice pop), mango chili lime.

The distiller has developed Stoli Hot cocktail recipes, including, among others:

 
There are plenty of ways to have a hot time on Cinco de Mayo!

You can infuse your own vodka with jalapeños, and can also play around with a touch of chipotle or liquid smoke flavor. Home-infused vodka will have a different flavor from Stolichnaya’s since commercial vodkas are flavored with extracts instead of infused with fresh fruit.

Just because you’ll be infusing jalapeños doesn’t mean you can buy the cheapest vodka on the shelf: The impurities will still be apparent. Of course, you don’t have to infuse the most expensive vodka, either, unless you want to.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. REMOVE stems from jalapeños and cut into quarters lengthwise. Add to the vodka bottle.

2. STEEP in a cool, dark place for one week; then taste. If you’d like a hotter flavor, continue steeping and check weekly.

3. REMOVE the jalapeños. You can keep them in the bottle for a picturesque touch, and they will continue to add flavor for a few months until their flavors are thoroughly incorporated.

TIP: It’s not easy to remove the fruit from the bottle. Instead, keep an empty vodka bottle around for making infused vodka. Transfer the vodka you’re infusing into that bottle and add the fruit. Then, when your infusion is complete, decant the flavored vodka into the original bottle.
 
 
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