The ‘fricy’ flavour sensation: why spicy fruit is the sweet hot taste of this summer

Key points

• When the balance of fruit and spicy flavours is right, “I love it,” a fellow customer at a dessert cafe in London tells me as we wait to be served.
• It’s 26-year-old Hannah’s third time visiting Mango Twist in Seven Sisters, which sells South American-inspired slushies and fruit bowls.
• She’s here, like me, to order one of its “fricy” (fruity and spicy) offerings: the “Volcano” slushie, which is the cafe’s take on the traditional Mexican chamoyada, a mango and chilli drink.
• Hannah has family in the US, so is familiar with the Mexican sweet treats that are commonly available there;
• as a child she was “obsessed” with the flavours.