Three separate peppers appear on this list, and a fourth botanical behaves like one. Red Sichuan pepper, pink peppercorns and voatsiperifery from Madagascar each bring a different kind of heat, and passion berry adds another aromatic bite beside them, which makes Birdie Skwak a limited edition organised around a single sensation explored four ways. Small batches, 44%.

The peppers are not interchangeable and that is the point of using several. Red Sichuan pepper is the one that tingles rather than burns, numbing the tongue slightly and lifting everything that follows. Pink peppercorns are sweeter and more fragrant, closer to a berry than to a spice. Voatsiperifery is the wildest of them, a Madagascan pepper with a floral, faintly woody heat, and passion berry sits alongside with its own sharp aromatic snap. Around that core the recipe softens deliberately. Hibiscus adds a tart floral colour, lime zest keeps the top bright, and ginger warms the middle with a rounder heat than any of the peppers manage. Then the sweeter depth arrives: Peruvian cocoa powder, cinnamon and tonka bean, three ingredients that carry sweetness in aroma without adding sugar to the palate. Bhutan berry contributes a fruity turn, and juniper anchors the whole arrangement.

Heat and cocoa together are a difficult pair to mix, and the safest route is the plainest. Unflavoured tonic, ice packed to the brim, and lime zest as garnish, which repeats the recipe and cuts the sweetness at the same time. A pink peppercorn or two, lightly crushed, is the alternative for anyone wanting the spice pushed forward. Skip anything sweetened entirely, since the tonka and the cocoa already occupy that ground. A recipe this crowded should collapse, and the peppers are what hold it upright. It ends spicy, floral and long.