These Tongue-Tingling Peanuts Are the Ultimate Bar Snack

You could call Yao Zhao a sermonizer of spices, or a preacher of pepper. At his company 50Hertz Tingly Foods, which specializes in premium Szechuan pepper, the mission is, in his words, “to spread the tingle.” 

While Szechuan peppercorns might look similar to black peppercorns, they are not only unrelated — they also impart a completely different type of spice. The tiny fruit of the prickly ash tree has citrusy, floral flavors, and, due to the compound hydroxy-alpha-sanshool, delivers a tingly sensation on your lips and tongue when eaten. It’s that exact feeling that inspired the name of Zhao’s company, 50Hertz Tingly Foods.

In the cooking of China’s southwestern Szechuan region, Szechuan pepper is famously paired with hot chile peppers to create a mala (“numbing and spicy”) flavor profile for dishes like mapo tofu. But Zhao wants to showcase its versatility and potential for all kinds of dishes — not just spicy ones. Zhao focused first on pantry ingredients, with a line of Szechuan pepper oils and dried red and green Szechuan peppers that have been embraced by many chefs and specialty food stores around the country (Eleven Madison, Nobu, and Chef’s Warehouse are among his customers).

But, Zhao says, for cooks inexperienced in cooking with Szechuan pepper, the pantry ingredients were intimidating. “Most Americans, they don’t know what to do with Szechuan pepper,” he explains. The learning curve involved in figuring out how to work its numbing properties into everyday cooking daunted many potential customers. So, he decided to take a different approach that showcased Szechuan pepper in an easy-to-nosh snack food. “I needed something that could carry the tingly sensation, to show how that flavor can be approachable.” His answer came in the form of peanuts. 

To make 50Hertz Tingly Sichuan Pepper Peanuts, Zhao sources peanuts from eastern China, where they grow large and plump — to the size of a proper cocktail peanut — in the sandy soils along the Yellow River. They’re modeled after ma la peanuts, a traditional numbing and spicy drinking snack. But to ensure the tingly flavor thoroughly permeates each one, they’re fried with red and green Szechuan peppers, then seasoned with salt, lightly sweetened, and hit with a little rosemary. The result is a crunchy, salty, zesty snack with a pronounced but pleasant buzzing sensation that fades just quickly enough to make you want another one. All in all, they make a deeply satisfying snack — and a delicious introduction to Szechuan pepper.