Spicy Tequila Drinks As Signature Cocktails

A few weeks ago, I developed signature cocktails for my wonderful college roommate's bachelorette party. I know it's deeply uncool to jump on bandwagons, but I will happily admit that I'm a huge fan of the signature cocktail craze. As someone who adores spirits and loves specialty, one-off items and events, it's kind of a match made in heaven for me, so I was pleased as proverbial punch to create themed cocktails for the beautiful bride-to-be: my friend is proudly of South Asian descent, she loves spicy foods, and she's also got a soft spot for the American South, so I whipped up some cocktails specific to her tastes and personality. Since we were having a Mexican dinner catered by the ever-delicious La Palapa, I decided to make drinks with a tequila base to match. The drinks of the night were a Sriracha-Peach Smash and a Jalapeño-Thyme Lassi, both featuring Tequila Avión.

If you're looking to make signature cocktails for an event, consider ways to personalize the cocktail for the guest of honor — and also make the drink easy for people to enjoy. For the bachelorette party, I used tall squeeze bottles with big labels on the side, and wrote out a big list of instructions for each drink: that way, if I wasn't around to bartend, people could mix up their own cocktails and still achieve the right balance of flavors.

Check out the Sriracha-Peach Smash Recipe.

Check out the Jalapeño-Thyme Lassi Recipe.

Jess Novak is the Drink Editor of The Daily Meal. Follow her on Twitter @jesstothenovak