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Summer cocktail: cherry bourbon fizz

Our first vagabond week took place in Eugene at Brett’s parents house, enjoying steamy hot Oregon summer days and cloudy, chilly, misty Oregon summer days (oh, Oregon). We rode our bikes along the river and ran on actual trails and had lunch with friends, and breakfast with friends, and (cheap, amazing) beers with friends. We drank Oregon pinot. We went to the Fair. We moved and unpacked and organized all of our earthly belongings, sorting them into “see you next year” and “mobile lifestyle” (aka living out of a car for three months) piles.  Then we made that second pile smaller, and smaller, and smaller. We promptly reopened almost every box looking for the camera tripod, which eventually turned up in the backseat of the car. It’s going to be a long year of searching for and moving around our belongings.

And we ate cherries. Cherries, and cherries, and cherries.

cherries

cocktail2

Our first evening in Eugene, my in-laws went cherry picking and returned with a particularly fruitful harvest of 35 pounds of ripe, still sun-warmed Bing cherries. (Fruitful. Heh.) I can work my way through a 10 pound bag of oranges in the Southern California wintertime, and I can use up limes like a champion. But Oregon summertime means berries and cherries, and I’ve gotten overwhelmed with all of the things I want to do with them while I have them around.

setup cocktail muddled

Really, we mostly ate them straight (and still are – I know for a fact that my father-in-law has a bag of them in his truck at this very moment). Once I actually ate so many while I was pondering what to bake with them that I ended up too full to do anything else. But I also layered them into a chocolate icebox cake and smooshed a few into this slightly fizzy, entirely summery, bright red cocktail. Cherries and bourbon are a pretty natural combination, and the citrus juice and bit of fizz added at the end make it far more light and summery than its Manhattan kin. I drank mine as I rolled out and cut a batch of gnocchi dough for dinner on one of those cooler, cloudier Oregon summer evenings, and thought about which bar tools I might be able to fit into the car. (The “mobile culinary center” pile is growing by the minute.) I’m pretty sure we had cherries for dessert that night, too,  and I’m looking forward to more when we get back next week.

Cherry bourbon fizz

Makes 1, but easily scalable

  • 4 ripe, juicy cherries (Bings are great, but others work too)
  • 1-2 tsp. granulated sugar (can alter for sweetness)
  • 1 1/2 ounces bourbon or rye (I often favor Maker’s Mark for cocktails – and for everything else – but we work with what we’ve got, these days)
  • 1/2 ounce lime juice (lemon works, too)
  • Splash of soda

– Muddle 3 of the cherries and the sugar in the bottom of a cocktail shaker.

– Fill the shaker halfway with ice. Add the bourbon and lime juice, and shake.

– Strain into a cocktail glass with a few cubes of ice. Add the splash of soda and stir gently. Drop in the last cherry as a garnish, and serve.

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47 Comments Post a comment
  1. val close #

    The pictures of the cherries and the sunlight were the essence of summer. Yummmm!

    July 23, 2012
  2. Wow! Those photos are awesome. I can almost taste the cherries! hmmm.

    July 26, 2012
  3. Wow what I would do for one of those right now!!’

    July 26, 2012
  4. Looks delicious. Wish it was mine:)

    July 26, 2012
  5. it all sounds (and looks!) so tasty. I could easily eat cherries until I was ill… recover and start again!

    July 26, 2012
  6. check out some of the recipes and tricks in this e-book. A nice collection of humorous short stories but the recipes and tricks take it over the top.http://secretsofabartender.wordpress.com/

    July 26, 2012
  7. Um…WOW! I love anything with a “fizz.” And bourbon. And cherries.

    Safe to say I might just love this…

    🙂

    July 26, 2012
  8. the beautiful pictures alone sell the drink, fantastic combination, will try it tonight for shure.
    Thanks for sharing

    July 26, 2012
    • sorry, not shure…sure lol
      thanks and congrats on the FP!

      July 26, 2012
  9. Yum! Not a fan of bourbon, but I might become one from this. Would love to try it with lemon-lime soda as well.

    July 26, 2012
  10. That looks very, very good.

    Looks like I need to pick up some cherries at the store tonight.

    July 26, 2012
  11. This is a great blog and That cherry bourbon fizz works for me.

    July 26, 2012
  12. Reblogged this on finnegan2749.

    July 26, 2012
  13. Looks absolutely delightful! Can’t wait to try it. Thanks!

    July 26, 2012
  14. This looks amazing – thanks for sharing!!

    July 26, 2012
  15. What a gorgeous colourful drink – looks so summery 🙂

    July 26, 2012
  16. Nice article

    July 26, 2012
  17. I think I’ll try it. It’s cherry season here in Utah too, but it’s almost over.

    July 26, 2012
  18. I’m going to make that this very evening, thanks!

    July 26, 2012
  19. This is so happening when I get home from work!!! Lovely blog 🙂

    July 26, 2012
  20. Wow! This looks great! A must try! and right before the weekend too….. 🙂

    July 26, 2012
  21. Summer cherry cocktail–I love it! Time to lay back, hit the deck, and find myself under bright skies with a drink in hand lol.

    July 26, 2012
  22. Excellent. This will work fine for the weekend. Thank you!

    July 26, 2012
  23. What a sublime looking drink illustrated with beautiful photos. I think I’ll be visiting my local grocers and raiding them of cherries!

    July 26, 2012
  24. Do want! Looks so good!

    Congratulations on freshly pressed.

    July 26, 2012
  25. very tasty,
    visit my blog of recipes
    http://siemprecableatierra.wordpress.com/

    July 26, 2012
  26. Hold the phone, CHOCOLATE CHERRY ICEBOX CAKE?

    Recipe. Now.

    July 26, 2012
  27. Yum! Sounds great!

    July 26, 2012
  28. Reblogged this on Makais Blog and commented:
    my mouth is watering

    July 26, 2012
  29. This looks so delicious and refreshing! Thanks for sharing!
    -Aleece
    http://recipesfullofdeliciousness.wordpress.com/

    July 26, 2012
  30. This recipe sounds delicious! And the pictures looked so refreshing, will definitely try this cocktail!

    July 26, 2012
  31. Food Stories #

    Enjoying your site so I’m nominating you for my Illuminating Blogger Award for informative, illuminating blog content. I know not everyone participates in blog awards but I hope you’ll at least check it out because it’s a great way to discover new blogs and meet new web friends. If you’re interested in participating, you can check out the details at my site … foodstoriesblog dot com & then click on “Illuminating Blogger Award Site” in the upper right-hand corner … Either way, hope you’re having a great day 🙂

    July 26, 2012
  32. Trying this!!

    July 26, 2012
  33. It seems to be quite different and so refreshing, I’ll definitely get some fresh cherries for that. Going to try soon.

    July 26, 2012
  34. wonderful, think I will try this!

    July 27, 2012
  35. Ann #

    Really amazing photos! Loved them! Congrats on being Freshly Pressed!

    July 27, 2012
  36. I so want one right now, looks sooo delicious!

    July 27, 2012
  37. My son keeps taking my cherries to smash them and mix them into water to make cherry juice. I think I have a good way to “redirect” him. congrats on being featured!

    July 27, 2012
  38. de #

    Looks truly refreshing! I’d probably have eaten them as is and suffered the consequences later… It’d definitely be worth it! :p

    July 27, 2012
  39. Bourbon Cherry Fizz was awesome! Made some of them yesterday.

    July 27, 2012
  40. whoa, i randomly concocted something very similar two nights ago & realized that the bourbon cherry combo deserved further investigation…& now it will! we had done bourbon, fresh cherries muddled with fresh mint, a tiny bit of agave syrup & a mountain of ice but fizz is totally what we were missing — thank you!

    July 27, 2012
    • Fresh mint sounds like an awesome addition … will have to try that next time!

      July 27, 2012
  41. yummy…. looks so delicious…

    July 30, 2012
  42. Courtney #

    I’ve always turned to professionals for drinks like this. I thought I could only enjoy them from a frozen cocktail machine hire perth. Now I can try making my own! Thanks for the recipe, it looks delicious.

    September 18, 2012

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