One of the great joys of moving to deepest rural Kent has been our newfound proximity to fruit – and particularly, cherry, orchards. We’ve witnessed the whole cycle of the agricultural year roll on, day by day - from the budding of nascent leaves in the early Spring, then the flourish of frothy blossom, followed by the magnificent fruiting. More latterly, we’ve seen the leaves turn a spectacular flame-red before they’ve finally withered away and fallen to the ground.
The orchards are completely bare now, but during the summer, when they were laden with more fruit than was altogether seemly, I set aside a few cherries – regrettably not many, because they were too delicious to resist eating straight off the tree – to make a trial quantity of cherry vodka.
I say ‘trial’, because I’m a bit of a purist when it comes to vodka. If I have fruit in anything, it’s gin – and with gin, it’s got to be sloe and/or damson.
But this year, I felt the cherries were too special to wave goodbye to them after only a few short weeks of the season. Could I literally bottle their wonderful flavours in the hope of summoning up the sunshine in in the dark, cold winter evenings?
The answer? It is, I’m pleased to say, an emphatic yes.
I realise it’s rather too late in the day this year for you to make some, but I urge you to bookmark this recipe ready for next summer.
And now I’ve bottled the resultant liquor, I’m left with another edible ‘problem’ – what to do with leftover vodka-soaked cherries?
And that, of course, is what I’ll be posting next.
I’m actually sponsoring a cherry tree in an orchard in Kent, so I am very much looking forward to a haul in summer! Looking forward to seeing what you do with the booze-soaked cherries. Personally I like using them in an insane black forest trifle.
Ah, I considered that tree-sponsoring stuff, too, but got distracted… Will be interested to hear how it goes for you.
As for how to use booze-soaked cherries – we obviously share the same glutton instincts! I’ll be making a Christmas black foresty-type trifle with some other cherries I have which are soaked in port…
Sounds fantastic.
Wow, cherry vodka is one of my favorite vodka. Where I live I cannot find it regular but still love to get it from long distance. I think this is love between me and cherry vodka
. Thanks for nice discussion.
I’m always looking for new, original cocktails that stand out from the rest and the Cherry Bitch is one of those. It gets its name from the brand of gin that created it, Bulldog Gin. This one is intriguing because it brings back the revitalized technique of muddling, but instead of citrus, sugar and mint, which are commonly muddled, the Cherry Bitch muddles fresh cherries. The flavor of the entire cocktail is complex with black currant, orange, lime and apple which highlight the cherries and unique Bulldog Gin.
Ingredients:
6 oz Bulldog Gin
1 bag black currant tea
3-5 fresh cherries
3/4 oz lime juice
3-4 oz apple juice
1 oz simple syrup
orange peel twist for garnish
Preparation:
In a cocktail glass, muddle cherries. (It can be difficult to properly muddle in a cocktail glass. Instead, use a mixing glass or an old-fashioned glass for this intial mix.)
In another glass, infuse Bulldog Gin with black currant tea and then, after removing the tea bag, transfer the mix into the cocktail glass.
Add lime juice, simple syrup and apple juice into the cocktail glass then transfer the entire mixture into an ice-filled cocktail shaker.
Shake dilligently in the cocktail shaker; strain into an ice-filled rocks glass and garnish with an orange twist.
Oh dear. That vodka bottle looks amazing! Is it home made Vodka? I’m trying to insure my self.
Looking forward to seeing what you do with the booze-soaked cherries. Thanks for pretty post.
and what did you do with them? They look good, I love cherries
The cherries look great will definitely have a go. I steeped my damsons in brandy though – Delicious!