4 Cocktail Cherries to Try Right Now
By Esther Tseng
When it comes to the ingredients in your cocktails, are you paying enough attention to the garnish?
Among the most popular and traditional are maraschino cherries, seen in everything from the Old Fashioned to the Manhattan and beyond. Here are four cocktail cherries that can add that special touch onto your drink.
Amarena Cherries by Toschi
Amarena cherries by Toschi are picked in July in the Vignola mountains of Italy. You’ll get mostly sour but refreshing notes from these babies. They’re ideal as a garnish on gelato and chocolate desserts – or on that sweet cocktail that could use some sourness to break it up.
Fabbri Amarena Cherries
These cherries have been produced by the Fabbri family since 1905 with a guarded recipe, and fruit from the Emilia-Romagna province. The Fabbri cherries impart a mostly bitter flavor, which is why they’re so popular on desserts or dropped in a glass of Prosecco. They would also be a natural complement to Amaro cocktails.
Jack Rudy Bourbon Cherries
You can call Jack Rudy Bourbon Cherries “America’s Sweethearts,” taking the best of Oregon cherries and soaking them in Kentucky bourbon. The result is a sweet, boozy undertaking that you’ll probably want to pick straight from the jar. Also: Perfect Old Fashioneds.
Ole Smoky
One can hardly argue with steeping maraschino cherries in Moonshine, so it makes sense that the Moonshine people themselves should be the ones to do it. The heat from the 100 proof distillate is the major note you’ll get from these. Of all the varieties on this list, this one serves as a “cherry bomb” of booze.