New York's spiciest cocktails

Yerba Buena | Poquito Picante

Mexican-born mixologist Artemio Vasquez created this gin-based drink, which blends Cointreau infused with jalapeño skins, cilantro, cucumber, simple syrup and freshly squeezed lemon juice, while he was a bar back at Pegu Club, where it was such a staple that patrons were devastated when Vasquez departed and took the signature recipe with him. It’s once again become a mainstay at this East Village cantina, thanks to the gin’s delicate herbal qualities that balance the (literally) cool-as-a-cucumber top note with the red-hot spicy backbone. It’s garnished with a dried chili, which isn’t meant to be eaten, although one customer did so in a show of machismo to impress his two lady friends. Which did not work. ($12)

Burn degree: 1st

Hot stuff? 5 stars. A textbook handling of heat in a cocktail: the subtle spice adds body and texture, rather than sharpness or pain, and serves as a distinct flavor before giving way to other notes, like the cucumber’s freshness. A fire that warms rather than burns you.

Yerba Buena (23 Avenue A, 212-529-2919)