Say hi to ‘fricy’, the hot and fruity new trend to make your tongue tingle

If 2025 was the year of swicy − that sweet yet spicy flavour profile epitomised by hot honey and dribbled on everything from pizza to ice cream − then 2026 welcomes the era of “fricy” foods, where fruit and spice join forces to tap-dance across our tongues.

Search “spicy fruit” on Instagram or TikTok and you’ll find Thai “spicy fruit salad” taste tests, recipes for chilli dusted Chinese tanghulu fruit candy, or Mexican chamoy-doused watermelon. We’re also seeing the ready availability of fruit-spice blends like lime and chilli Tajin seasoning and Filipino tamis anghang banana chilli sauce in supermarkets.

While levels of heat and sweetness vary, these punchy favour combinations are used interchangeably on savoury or sweet dishes, including on fruits.

“In many respects, the use of spice with sweet flavours is not new,” says spice specialist Ian “Herbie” Hemphill of NSW of Herbie’s Spices in NSW.

“The issue with the word ‘spice’ is that it makes people immediately think of chilli. Of course chilli is hot, but there are lots of other spices that have complementary flavours, too.”

Think of the warming notes in ginger and cinnamon. For Hemphill, who recommends trying pepper on your strawberries, fruity-spicy combinations are not always about an intensely fiery sensation, and he gives the example of fruity notes in chilli chocolate.

“A lot of manufacturers add chilli extract or red chillies. But they could be using ancho, pasilla, or mulato, those chillies that are black. They look really intense, but they’ve only got a heat level of about three or four. And they smell like raisins and sultanas,” says Hemphill, whose recent cookbook, How to Add Flavour, includes a section on the fruity notes of chilli, and recipes including peach basil bruschetta with pepper.

So spiced, so versatile

Chef and co-founder of pre-mix brand Azteca Margarita, Tom Addison, is a big fan of the fruit and spice combinations he fell in love with while travelling in Mexico.

“All the kitchens are open, so you can literally see it everywhere on the benches,” he says.

Fricy flavours appear in his Azteca range, in both their margarita mixes and their spiced salts, featuring limes from their local Byron region and heat from smoked jalapenos.

“People just want something different, and that spicy-sweet combo has been really hitting, especially with the sweet-sour-spicy all together in one.”

Catherine Zhang

“With fruit I think bright, sweet, and acidic,” says Addison. “With the chillis we go deeper, darker, maybe a peppery tang. It’s the contrast of the two that just works. They enhance one another, and they do a bit of magic when they ‘shabango’ together,” says the margarita advocate with a laugh.

Azteca’s fruity-spiced salt mix is designed to work with a fruity-spicy margarita, but he’s more than happy to suggest using it on fish, meat or in a salad.

“We encourage people to use it on everything. Not just for a salt rim.”

Thrill seekers

The fricy flavour combination was also on show at Sydney’s Royal Easter Show this year, with dessert queen and cookbook author Catherine Zhang serving it up.

“We have the watermelon chamoy. Watermelon wrapped in fruit roll-up, dipped in chamoy [spicy fruit sauce] and sprinkled with Tajin [chilli spice mix]. That’s our spicy-fruit-sweet option.”

It’s a combination Zhang says catches the imagination.

“People just want something different, and that spicy-sweet combo has been really hitting, especially with the sweet-sour-spicy all together in one. It just excites our tastebuds.”

Zhang notes that cultures including Mexican, Vietnamese and Thai are known for their fruit and spice combinations.

“I think everyone’s getting experimental and we really want to try different cultures’ foods and get into the differences in cuisine. This is just one part that we’re diving deep into.”

How to try it at home

Zhang suggests picking up some chamoy sauce or Tajin classic seasoning – find it at mainstream supermarkets – and trying it on your favourite fruit.

“Just a little bit of both on some fresh, ripe mango is really good.”

Hemphill has a range of spice blends for a fricy experience, including sugar’n’spice with pasilla chilli and chilli lime salt. But he also suggests sprinkling a little kashmiri chilli on mango for its capsicum notes and “little bit of a zing, without overpowering heat.”

And as a first-hand fricy recommendation, Azteca’s Hot Lips Margarita Salt (with orange, lemon, lime and smoked jalapeno) is equally good on grilled fish or fresh mango.

Jane de Graff’s fruity tanghulu with spicy chamoy and Tajin

This is a perfect introduction to “fricy” fruit-spice flavours sprinkled and drizzled over the Chinese street snack of candy covered fruit.

Both the Tajin seasoning and that chamoy sauce have spice and fruit in them and are a great finish to the candied fruit of the tanghulu, but they would also work well on toffee apples or caramelised pineapple.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup water
• 2 cups sugar
• 10 strawberries, green leaves removed
• 10 large green grapes
• 10 mandarin segments, white pith removed
• 1 tbsp Tajin classic chilli seasoning (*see note)
• ¼ cup chamoy sauce

Tools:

• candy thermometer
• 10 bamboo skewers

Method:

1. Wash and thoroughly dry your fruit and thread it onto 10 bamboo skewers.
2. Rest the fruit skewers on paper towel to absorb any extra moisture while you prepare the sugar syrup.
3. In a shallow frypan, swirl together water and sugar, then bring to the boil and then reduce to a steady simmer, cooking without stirring for 10 minutes or until all the sugar has dissolved and the syrup is beginning to turn a light amber colour. It will need to get to 150C on a candy thermometer to reach hard crack stage for the sugar shell.
4. While the syrup is cooking, prepare a large bowl filled with chilled water and ice.
5. When syrup is 150C and light amber in colour, remove from the heat and dip the skewers into the syrup one at a time, rolling them quickly to cover them in the sugar syrup, then place immediately into the iced water for 10 seconds to set the candy shell hard. Set aside on baking paper.
6. Repeat until all the skewers are coated. Place tanghulu skewers on a plate and serve dusted with Tajin seasoning and a drizzle of chamoy sauce.

Notes: * You can make your own version of chilli seasoning with a mix of chilli powder, salt, sugar and finely grated lime zest.

You can also heat the sugar syrup in stages in the microwave, but I find the stovetop to be more reliable for reaching the perfect temperature when working with this quantity of sugar syrup.