A friend is having a birthday party tomorrow, and she’s decided to have a cocktail competition, where everyone brings the ingredients to make a single cocktail. She will be the judge, of course. What I really like about it is that it’s kind of like inviting people over to stock your bar for you. Genius, in my opinion. Now I know what my next birthday party will look like.

So my entry is going to be the Salt and Chile Pepper Martini, which is a variation on the more traditional Salt and Pepper martini, which I described in a previous post. For this one, I made two important changes. First, I added ground pequin chile powder to the salt. I just made a mixture of 1 part salt and 1/2 chile powder, rubbed a lime around the rim, and dipped the glass into the mixture. Second, I substituted ginger-infused simple syrup for the traditional simple syrup. These two changes make a great drink into a more refined, palate-pleasing powerhouse. Just kidding with the alliteration, but, seriously, the drink is pretty good.

Here are the new proportions:

• 1 1/2 oz gin
• 3/4 oz ginger syrup
• 3/4 oz lemon juice
• 3/4 oz grapefruit juice
• rim prepared with Kosher salt and pequin chile powder

The drink brings something special to the cocktail by adding additional spiciness that appeals to more of the taste buds. A fine addition.