If you’ve followed me over the years, then you know I get pumped when sour cherries are in season. (If you haven’t, hello! Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Amanda and I’m very into cherries.) That’s because cherry season, which is happening now in the Northeast and many other locales, is when it’s time to make cocktail cherries cured in warm sugar syrup and booze. If you do it right they have the potential to last at least a year. Well, that is, if you don’t eat them all first. 

Cherry season, especially the window to find good sour cherries, only lasts a scant handful of weeks, so I’m fatalistic (I was going to say “somewhat” but let’s be real, it’s full on) about getting to work the second I spot them at the farmer’s market. It causes a fun adrenaline rush. I get a little giddy. I get a cherry go time high. 

Again if you’ve followed me over the years, then you have probably come across my articles about how to prepare the cherries, and the different boozes—added to the base syrup—that I’ve used to preserve them. (If you haven’t… well, you get the idea.) These flavor combinations include, but are not limited to, Rye & Amaro, Brandy, Rum Vanilla, Spiced Bourbon, Shochu Amaretto.