Maraschino cherries are an essential cocktail ingredient.
But they also have a bad reputation. Cocktail sabotage by these lurid, oversweet, radioactive-looking, vaguely cherry-flavoured impostors has occurred for decades.
But the maraschino cherry is one of the great cocktail garnishes when treated with respect. After all, if you care about your drinks, you should care about your cherries.
Because a cocktail really is only as good as what goes into it, right down to the final flourish in the glass.
Maraschino cherries
What is a Maraschino cherry?
Traditionally, Maraschino cherries are prepared by preserving small, light coloured cherries in a brine solution, dyeing them red, and then dousing them in Maraschino Liqueur.
This technique, whilst effective, is also time-consuming and impossible to undertake unless the cherries are in season and fresh.
Former Master of Malt creator of things Ben Ellefsen will tell you that commercially available ‘cocktail cherries’ (note the conspicuous absence of the word ‘Maraschino’) for sale in supermarkets and on the interweb tend to be of inferior quality. And Ben knows his cherries. They typically contain no Maraschino Liqueur at all, for a start. Often, they’ll use cheaper sugar syrup and artificial flavourings too. All that achieves is a poor approximation of the real thing.
No bar is complete without them
The real thing
To allow you to sample the ‘real’ Maraschino cherry, Ben went through a series of experiments to find the best way to prepare proper Maraschino cherries all year round. He did this on our blog about 15 years ago, but his tips still stand up, hence this update.
The key to the procedure is to use canned or jarred cherries (which have already been preserved during the canning process) of a sufficiently high quality. Top tip: buy one of every variety of canned cherries available in your local supermarket, and look for the ones that are firmest and tastiest.
We found a huge variance in the cherries available in our local supermarkets, and have to say that there wasn’t a clear-cut winner. Some people preferred the larger, darker cherries, and some preferred the smaller, lighter Morello cherries. We say try them all, and judge for yourself.
Onto the recipe!
Perhaps the ultimate cocktail: The Old Fashioned, complete with cherry
How to make your own Maraschino cherries
Take one ‘Kilner’ style re-sealable jar (just a Jam Jar would do if you don’t have one), and place it in the oven at 120 centigrade for 10 minutes to sterilise. Remove the jar and leave it to cool down.
Meanwhile, empty a tin or two (depending on the size of jar you’re using) of canned cherries into a sieve, and rinse under cold running water for 30 seconds to remove any syrup or juice.
Empty the cherries onto kitchen paper, and pat dry, taking care to remove as much of the water as possible without crushing the cherries.
Pack the jar with cherries – fill it right to the top – get as many in as you possibly can.
Pour in Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur until the cherries are completely covered.
Place in the fridge, and leave for at least 2 weeks in order to achieve the best flavour. The cherries will improve with time as they take on more and more of the Maraschino flavour.
Done.
If all that sounds like too much faff, you can buy Luxardo or Hotel Starlino’s attempts here.
