Does anyone else here think that the cherries marketed specifically for cocktails are: (a) not very good; and (b) ridiculously expensive? In fact, I can’t recall ever eating one and being impressed in any way. I’ve stopped buying them.
What I do now is steep the Costco dried Montmorency cherries in whatever liquor and keep some in small canning jars.
What do you like?
One of my favorite cocktail bars in Berlin, Stagger Lee macerates their cherries in some type of booze (brandy? I can’t remember), and serves a toothpick with 3 of those babies alongside their fantastic Mint Julep.
I don’t make enough cocktails at home that call for cherries, so I haven’t felt the need to make my own.
Some are crazy priced/not good like the Luxardo brand. My fav is Tillen Farms Merry Maraschino, but (at least up here) can be hard to find.
My Costco has started carrying the Fabbri brand amarena cherries, which I find DELICIOUS, In a large jar for a very reasonable price. I canned some cocktail cherries of my own making this sumner so I haven’t bought the Fabbri brand recently, but they are better than Luxardo in my opinion.
Amarena cherries are more my groove than the maraschino ones.
The “wild” aspect sounds promising, although at $2.89/oz, that may not be bargainish. The Costco tag says $0.53/oz , so that’s a much better deal. How long you think it’ll be before they’re D/C’d?
I think the dried Montmorency go for $8.59 for 20 oz. bag or $0.43/oz, and those ounces don’t include water and syrup. Per cherry, there’s probably a big price difference.
I like Sable & Rosenfeld Tipsy Cherries and Tillen Farms Bada Bings. They are both around $8, I think the Bada Bings are in a slightly larger jar.
Which is my pick. Have also tried Fabbri, Filthy., Woodford reserve, and rehydrating dried.
As a kid I remember getting the cherry from my Dad’s manhattan that was soaked in the cocktail… it was delicious, sweet, smoky, etc. My prob with the Luxardo’s is the texture and super heavy syrup, which prevents it from soaking up those flavors. The Tillen Farms MM’s are more of a blank canvass.
We buy 1.1Kilo Can of Amarena Vere made by Agrimontana. I break it up into a few Canning Jars for storage. Great in Cocktails and for Pastry.
My local Costco did not have these today. A helpful floor worker looked them up, and thought they’d already been d/c’d, although he found some 40 miles away.
I’ve also enjoyed Bada Bings for purchased cherries. First recommended to me by a dear friend who ran the bar program at Brennan’s in Houston for many years before he passed. I don’t encounter them very often and now live in cherry growing country so have made a variety of my own the past few years.
Thanks. I still have a partial jar of Bada Bings in one house’s fridge. IMO, they’re not bad, and substantially cheaper than the other specialty cocktail brands.
Maybe for some people . That’s ok . For myself its like picking the sees candy with the chocolate covered cherry . No .,…
I really like Luxardo cherries. They are also great with ice cream or just for eating on their own.
They are tasty BUT so doggone pricy any more, I’m not willing to splurge. I guess I have too many hobbies + travel desires so I cut corners here 'n there. Badda Bings and mine will have to do for me :D.
Luxardo are quite good and they last like forever without spoilage
we like the fabri from costco but they don’t have them anymore at our store. Bought these today, will report back:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BZ9HT11Z?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
Hope Amazon wraps yours better than they did mine. Leaky box with broken jar of cherries set in front of my apartment door stained the carpet. I order jarred cherries now , or any breakable foodstuff, from places that sell only food; they know how to wrap.
