Trending
Twisted Tries: Everyone on TikTok is making jalapeño rosé wine – here’s our verdict
By Joanna Sarah-Freedman
06 Jul 2022
4m
TikTok has thrown some weird and wonderful recipes our way in the last couple of years.
Some, like feta pasta, have stood the test of time, whilst others (ahem, Oreo sushi) have been disregarded to the scrap heaps they belong – quirky and aesthetically pleasing they might be, but when it comes to taste they just don’t the biscuit.
We have to admit that when we came across the combination of jalapeño peppers in rosé wine a few days ago, we were pretty sure it would be one of those ones we implored you to avoid.
Spicy wine? We couldn’t put our finger on it, but something about that just sounded wrong.
@allyssainthekitchen Iykyk
Amongst the wider Twisted team, the jury was out.
Our founder and creative director, Tom, was perhaps the most in favour of the idea, saying: “I love green chilli so I can perhaps understand why it might work – pairing chilli and wine when cooking is obviously a thing, but I love wine more than jalapeño so it’s probably not something I would do twice.”
But to be honest, we were less convinced. We too adore jalapeño peppers and good rosé wine, but what was the need to throw them together? Would it not just taste overly fragrant and a little confused at best?
In the interest of journalism, we put all preconceptions aside and decided to give the trend a go. After all, TikTok seems to love it, and we couldn’t knock it until we tried it.
Behind The Jalapeño Rosé Trend
The Jalapeño and rosé trend has actually been about for years, but it has risen to prominence in recent weeks thanks to a TikTok from user @allyssainthekitchen.
“Iykyk,” Allysa wrote alongside a video of herself pouring a glass of ice cold rosé and garnishing it with a few slices of the chilli pepper.
And a whopping 470,000 TikTok views and several spin-off reviews later, it seemed a lot of people *did* know – and not only that, they loved it, too.
@suziebonaldi Trying Jalapeño rosé 🌶 because @Allyssa in the Kitchen said so.
@tinx @Allyssa in the Kitchen you are a genius
@paigeejenna thank you for this life changer @Allyssa in the Kitchen 🤎 #jalapenorose #rose #happyhour
“Yesss here for this combo,” said one person in the comments.
Whilst another wrote: “This is so good! It was my go-to drink all last summer!”
We’re not exaggeration when we say we could barely find a bad review on the worldwide web. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, after all?
Twisted Tries Jalapeño Rosé
To make the jalapeño rosé we did as Allysa had, chopping up a green chilli pepper and dolloping a few slices into an ice cold glass of wine.
We can’t pretend this looked appetising (Credit: Twisted)
As expected, the aesthetic wasn’t doing anything for us. The jalapeño looked like it had fallen in the glass by accident – like a stray tray of nachos had whizzed past and it had got lost in transit.
Tentatively, we took a sip, expecting the spice to smack us in the face – but to our surprise the result was actually…. pretty nice?
In place of what we expected to be an overwhelming amalgamation of fruity and spicy flavour notes, we actually ended up with a much milder mouthful, with the chilli and the grapes coming together to create a somewhat savoury flavour, which was very palatable.
We love a glass of rosé wine in the summer, so we went into the taste test unconvinced that anything could better it, but when you look at jalapeño rosé as its own entity, it’s actually pretty moreish, and the balance of sweet and savoury keeps you coming back in the same way you might keep reaching for a spicy margarita.
The wine ended up tasting savoury and moreish (Credit: Twisted)
If anybody is a rosé sceptic, due to its slightly generalised reputation for being slightly sweeter and more fragrant, then this is a hack we would definitely recommend. And if you’re a rosé snob (like us), then the extra jalapeño definitely makes a mediocre bottle more interesting.
We would note (perhaps obviously) that the taste of jalapeño rosé varies when you switch up your vino. And pssst, it still doesn’t make White Zinfandel taste nice. Trust us, we tried.
So, there you have it folks, TikTok has actually won us over on this one.
We guess the moral of the story is don’t judge a TikTok trend by its cover – with a healthy dose of ice and a decent bottle of wine, this one well and truly bangs.
