What Does Java Coffee Taste Like When Chili Is Added?

A Sichuan-style coffee lifestyle festival in Chengdu, streamed on Alipay's lifestyle channel, showed a spicy coffee built from pineapple jam, green Sichuan peppercorn juice, cold brew coffee, erjingtiao chili, xiaomila chili, a splash of baijiu, and Sichuan peppercorns. The host called it seriously addictive and joked it saved him a cupping therapy session to remove dampness.

Chili and coffee is not a new pairing: an agricultural expert in Thailand opened a chili coffee shop locally years ago. The Chengdu drink follows garlic latte and cilantro latte as another experiment in creative coffee. Clips shared on the Sichuan Observer Weibo account showed the full build, leaving viewers curious and, in some cases, speechless about the combination.

The creative boundaries of coffee drinks are constantly being broken. After garlic latte and cilantro latte, spicy coffee has now entered the public eye. A Sichuan-style coffee life festival in Chengdu showcased via livestream a spicy coffee made by mixing pineapple jam, green Sichuan peppercorn juice, cold brew coffee, erjingtiao chili, xiaomila chili, and Sichuan peppercorns. After tasting it, the host exclaimed it was "seriously addictive" and joked that he wouldn't need cupping therapy to remove dampness this month. In fact, the combination of chili and coffee is nothing new—an agricultural expert in Thailand opened a chili coffee shop locally long ago. This article takes you through this creative drink that has netizens both curious and speechless, and the story behind it.

The ways people play with coffee are getting more and more baffling. A while back, garlic latte and cilantro latte flooded the internet, leaving many people at a loss for words when faced with ingredients they normally enjoy. Now it's the turn of spice lovers to get restless—extremely spicy coffee actually exists.

Cocktails became popular among young people thanks to their harmless appearance and juice-like taste. Coffee, as a drink young people can't live without, naturally couldn't escape being "messed with." Some people use coffee as a base spirit, pairing it with ingredients that seem mismatched but taste surprisingly good, creating cup after cup of unexpected creative concoctions.

Recently, a Sichuan-style coffee life festival held in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, was livestreamed via Alipay's lifestyle channel, giving more netizens a taste of the "power" of Sichuan coffee.

From video clips shared on the Sichuan Observer Weibo account, it opens with the process of making spicy coffee: pineapple jam and green Sichuan peppercorn juice mixed with cold brew coffee, then erjingtiao chili and xiaomila chili added, followed by a splash of baijiu, and finally a sprinkle of Sichuan peppercorns. Just like that, a cup of numbing, spicy, savory Sichuan-style coffee is complete.

Faced with this method, the host in the video maintained a tone of astonishment throughout. Looking at this cup of coffee—numbing, spicy, and supposedly able to dispel dampness—he turned to thank the barista for saving him the trouble of cupping therapy. The host could also be seen holding the spicy coffee in a lidded bowl, sticking out his tongue and fanning himself to cool down.

In the video, the host randomly pulled passersby over to try the spicy coffee together. After a sip, one passerby said it was "not bad." The barista then prepared an "extremely spicy" version for the host, who after drinking it first furrowed his brow, then blurted out "seriously addictive," adding that chili and coffee can actually coexist.

Some netizens expressed understanding toward spicy coffee—after all, Sichuan people really can handle spice, and anything can be made mala-flavored.

Some netizens found spicy coffee quite novel and wanted to try it themselves.

Other netizens said outright that this kind of coffee just wasn't for them.

Chengdu is a city passionate as fire, and mala is its local taste signature. In this era where everyone pursues creative specialty coffee, Guangdong has iced Guang-style coffee, and Sichuan has spicy coffee.

In fact, the combination of chili and coffee appeared long ago. Bobby, a 37-year-old Thai agricultural expert, opened the world's one-of-a-kind "Chili Coffee Shop (กาแฟพริกรสแซบ)" in Mae Prik District, Lampang Province, Thailand—a long-held dream of his as a coffee lover.

Bobby drew on his agricultural expertise, dry-roasting high-quality hybrid chilies together with Chiang Rai coffee beans so the beans absorb the capsaicin from the chilies, and built on the chili element to launch drinks like chili milk tea and chili green tea. He later opened a branch in Thailand in 2018.

Looking at this cup of specialty spicy coffee that seems to want to throw in an entire hotpot base, this native Guangdong keyboard warrior says that just reading the text makes his internal organs feel like they're on fire.

Image source: Sichuan Observer Weibo, internet

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.