hot sauce / hot pepper

has been used to spice up mixed drinks at least since the early days of the Cock-Tail, where it sometimes took the place of the bitters. See Cock-Tail. It was not, however, a mainstream ingredient until the Bloody Mary made it so. See Bloody Mary. In modern mixology, it is not uncommon to find a dash or two of hot sauce in a drink or a pinch of dried hot pepper sprinkled on top as a garnish. Hot pepper was also used by unscrupulous rectifiers to give a bit of bite to underproof spirits until food-purity laws put an end to such shenanigans. See also rectification.