Sweet Cherry Cocktail

Posted on by Jeff the Chef

"Cherry Cocktail," from Make It Like a Man

Makes 8 cocktails

Depending on your guests, 8 cocktails may serve 8 or 4. I like to have enough on-hand for 2 per person. If any is leftover, I drink it after my guests leave, to decompress. Fresh, in-season cherries are absofuckinglutely crucial. If you can’t get them, you can’t make this cocktail. That pretty much means you can only make in mid- to late-summer. This cocktail is so good, you’re going to be tempted to make a punch bowl full of it, and submerge your entire head in it. Don’t do this. (Although, if that’s where your dinner party’s headed … please invite me.)

1 cup sugar
Juice from 2-3 limes (⅓ cup, give or take)
1 pound fresh sweet cherries
8 ounces best-quality vodka
1 bottle sparkling water (750 mL) – highly carbonated, like Perrier or Faygo

1. Bring sugar and 1 cup water to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat; let cool completely. Syrup can be refrigerated in an airtight container up to 1 month. 2. Put lime juice into a medium nonreactive bowl. Halve and pit cherries; add to lime juice. Stir in syrup.

Refrigerate at least 1 hour (up to overnight).

3. Set out four 12-oz glasses. Into each, pour 2 ounces of vodka. Add 1/2-cup of the cherry mixture to each glass. Give each one a good stir. Add ice to fill the glasses loosely. 4. Down one of the drinks, and then re-make it so no one knows the difference. 5. Top off each drink with sparkling water. Stir gently.

"Cherry Cocktail," from Make It Like a Man! sunflower

[1] Cocktail: This is a “classic” cocktail recipe in the sense that it includes, in addition to alcohol, both a sweet (the juice produced by the cherries as they soak in the lime juice) and sour (the lime juice) ingredient.
[2] Cherries: They have to be pretty, so you have to halve them the way you would an avocado, then remove the pit with a large paperclip. Pull the smaller loop of the paperclip away from the larger loop, 180 degrees. You should wind up with an S shape. Use the larger end of the S to carve out and scoop out the pits. Don’t wear anything you love; you’re bound to get at least a little cherry juice on yourself.
[3] Glasses: Once the drinkers finish the drinks, they’re going to want to eat the cherries – which, of course, they should, because they’re delicious. It’s preferable for the glasses to have large rims, so the drinker can pick through the ice with a fork and nab the cherries. You should use a large old-fashioned glass rather than a thin, tall tumbler.

3 thoughts on “Sweet Cherry Cocktail”

  1. You should separate out the Burcheesegur and do just a thing on that. It sounds amazing.

    Reply

  2. This is very interesting. Do you really need fresh cherries? Have you tried canned?

    Reply

    1. Yes, you really do. They need to be sweet, full of flavor, and – very importantly – firm. If the texture’s off, they’ll loose too much of their charm.

      Reply

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