Maraschino Cherry
Two entirely different products share the name. The original is a marasca cherry preserved in maraschino liqueur; the bright red jar is a Prohibition-era replacement engineered to have no alcohol in it at all, and bleached before it is dyed back to red.
Quick Facts
Flavour Profile
Primary Flavours
Tasting Notes
Sweet and fruity with pronounced cherry flavour. Premium versions offer deeper fruit character with subtle almond and herbal notes from spirit preservation.
Recommended Brands
Budget Choice
Supermarket cocktail cherries: bright red and sweet, and honest about being decoration rather than flavour
Premium Choice
Luxardo Maraschino: marasca cherries in their own syrup, dark and bitter-edged, and they change the drink
Storage & Handling
Store sealed in the refrigerator after opening. Ensure cherries remain submerged in syrup or spirit to maintain quality.
Shelf Life
Unopened: 12+ months. Opened: 6–12 months refrigerated, if kept submerged
Usage
One or three on a pick, never two. The dark syrup-packed cherries finish stirred classics such as the Manhattan and the Old Fashioned; the neon jar belongs to tiki and to drinks where the colour is the joke rather than the flavour.
Two Different Products, One Name
The original belongs to the Adriatic. Small, dark, bittersweet marasca cherries grown around Zadar in Dalmatia, preserved in the clear liqueur distilled from the same fruit, which is where both the cherry and the liqueur take their name. Luxardo has been making it there since 1821.
What sits in a jar on most supermarket shelves is a different food that borrowed the word. Firmer cherries, no marasca, no liqueur, and a flavour built from syrup and almond rather than from the fruit.
How the Red One Happened
The American version arrived in the late nineteenth century and was rebuilt in 1919, when Ernest Wiegand at Oregon State worked out a brine that preserved cherries without alcohol. The timing was not a coincidence: Prohibition was arriving, and a cherry packed in liqueur was about to become a problem.
The brine strips the fruit of its own colour, using sulphur dioxide and calcium chloride, which is why the cherries have to be dyed afterwards. The bright red is not an intensified version of the cherry. It is paint applied to something bleached.
Which One a Drink Wants
Stirred classics take the dark jar. A Manhattan finishes on the cherry, and a syrup-packed marasca leaves a last mouthful of bitter fruit where the neon one leaves boiled sweet.
The bright cherry is not useless, though it belongs where the register is loud. Tiki drinks carry it happily, and so does anything where the garnish is meant to read as spectacle. What it cannot do is sit quietly at the bottom of a spirit-forward glass.
The Syrup
The dark jar's syrup is a real ingredient. It is thick, faintly bitter, and a barspoon of it does useful work in a sour, a fizz or a lemonade, so the jar is worth buying for the liquid as much as the fruit.
The neon syrup is best left in the jar. It carries the same colouring and almond flavouring as the cherries and adds nothing a drink was short of.
Pro Tip
A good maraschino cherry should taste like fruit first, not just sugar.
Top Tips
- Buy the dark jar for anything stirred. In a Manhattan the cherry is the last thing tasted, and a candy-flavoured one undoes the drink at the final sip.
- Keep them submerged. A cherry sitting above the syrup dries and hardens, and the jar is expensive enough to be worth the thirty seconds.
- Odd numbers on the pick. One or three, by the same convention as olives, because two reads as indecision rather than a garnish.
Possible Substitutions
- Amarena cherries
- Brandied cherries
- Fresh cherry (seasonal, different texture)
Production Method
Traditionally made by preserving sour cherries in syrup or spirit. Modern mass-market versions are often sweetened and coloured, while premium styles use natural cherries preserved in liqueur.
History & Context
Maraschino cherries originated from the marasca cherry of the Adriatic coast and were traditionally preserved in maraschino liqueur. Over time, mass-produced sweetened versions became common, while premium cocktail culture revived the original style.
Common Questions
Luxardo or neon cherries?
By the drink. The dark syrup-packed cherries finish stirred classics, where the last mouthful should be bitter fruit rather than boiled sweet. The neon jar belongs to tiki and to anything where the colour is the point. The Manhattan has a firm opinion on this.
Can you make cocktail cherries?
Easily, and they improve with keeping. Sour cherries, sugar and brandy in a sealed jar, made in summer and left alone: good by Christmas and better a year after that. The only real requirement is patience and somewhere cool to forget them.
How many cherries per drink?
One or three on a pick, following the same odd-number convention as olives, because two reads as indecision rather than a decision. Three suits a tall drink where the garnish has volume to fill; one is right on anything served up.
Is the cherry syrup useful?
The dark jar’s syrup is, and generously: a barspoon into a sour, a fizz or a lemonade adds thickness and a faint bitterness. The neon syrup carries the same colouring and almond flavouring as its cherries and is better left where it is.