Unexpectedly Great Cocktails You Can Make With Condiments

Whether it’s born out of necessity or just the fact that you noticed a bottle of Korean BBQ sauce sitting next to a handle of tequila, adding condiments -- even unlikely ones -- to cocktails can take them to unexpectedly delicious levels.This arts & crafts approach to making drinks at home is kind of like urban foraging, using what you find in the natural environment of your apartment to create unique cocktails. With an open mind, a bottle of booze, and a cocktail shaker, you can raid your pantry and fridge to make insanely complex-tasting cocktails with only a few simple ingredients. Here’s how.

Smashes involve shaking fruits into oblivion… and jam and jelly provide that in one-easy spoonful (and reduce the effort of vigorous shaking). If you keep a few different varieties in the fridge, you can let your guests have a “choose your own adventure” cocktail-making session. The basic ratio is 1 part jam/jelly, 2 parts spirit, and 1 part citrus.

People who are passionate about hot sauce won’t need a lot of convincing to add it to cocktails, because we put that shit on EVERYTHING! The michelada -- a combination of beer, hot sauce, lime, spicy salt, and other optional MSG-infused sauces -- is a refreshing cocktail that is basically an excuse to drink hot sauce.

Sure, mustard doesn't seem like the most obvious condiment for a cocktail… but neither did tomato juice or cocktail onions. Mustard is actually vinegar based, balancing the natural spice with some tang, and a little experimentation can yield surprisingly delicious results -- just take it from Matt Tanner of Houston’s Anvil Bar & Refuge. For those of us who keep a bare bones bar at home, a simple dijon daiquiri might become your new favorite pairing with hot dogs and brats (I’m looking at you football season). Mustard is a natural emulsifier and makes things thick, so a little goes a long way.

Capers (the small ones) and caperberries (the big ones) are the weird cousins of olives, with an extra salty flavor, which explains why people usually love them or hate them. Substituting caperberries for olives and juice in a classic martini makes it “filthy,” which is so much more fun to order… even if the bartender has no idea what you’re talking about.

It’s hard to imagine that homesteaders of the past didn’t occasionally add a splash of bourbon or rum to their jars of switchel, a potent mixture of cider vinegar, ginger, and maple syrup. Tart and tangy, vinegar often takes the place of ubiquitous citrus, and can be substituted in equal parts in most recipes. The type and quality of vinegar is important, just like the spirit; a good all-purpose vinegar to start with would be unpasteurized apple cider vinegar or sherry vinegar.

The Korean marinade paste and condiment is made from fermented chilies, rice, salt, soybeans, and sugar and comes out thick, rich with umami and tongue-tingling heat. Adding this to agave-based drinks is an East meets West combination that’s the best thing since Korean BBQ tacos. Recipe developer Emily Han puts it to use in a bright pink watermelon margarita, a great move on a cooler night.

BBQ sauce has a lot going for it:, it’s spicy, smoky, sweet,  tangy, and comes in endless variations. Particularly smoky sauces are begging to be paired with Scotch and mezcal, and spicy versions are destined to find their way to Bloody Mary mixes. Both tomato-based and vinegar based sauces work. Unlike with ribs, you won’t be picking them out of your teeth.

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