Tart Cherry Concentrate

[LindyCat]

I just discoved this product, and I love it. It's a tart cherry concentrate from Nature Blessed, with a very intense, fresh taste and the texture of a sugar syrup, about like Rose's Lime Juice. It's quite acidic. If you have had dried cherries, it tastes quite similar.

I've been trying to put it into cocktails, especially with chocolate, but so far nothing has been right. I think that it would go beautifully with ginger somehow. Does anyone have suggestions on how to use it?

[mbanu]

If it's acidic, use it as a lemon/lime juice substitute.

[KatieLoeb]

If you're comparing it to Rose's lime why not try make a Cherry Gimlet?

It would probably taste pretty good mixed with nut-based liqueurs as well. Cherry-almond is a classic combo, so maybe something with Amaretto?

I'd also consider white grape juice and white cranberry juice as mixers.

How about:

2 oz. vodka

1 oz. Amaretto

1 oz. tart cherry concentrate

2 oz. white cranberry juice

Shake and strain over ice in a highball glass. Top with a splash of club soda.

Let me know how it tastes...

[Alchemist]

To make it work with Cacao (Chocolate) , I would use some Bourbon or Applejack, and demerera syrup, A couple of fresh muddled cherries to brighten, and echo the concentrate, and then an acid such as lemon.

[oceanfish]

i might try making a ginger syrup with fresh ginger in simple syrup, and mixing equal parts cherry concentrate/ginger syrup into a gin and tonic? maybe too sweet?

[jsolomon]

I would suggest thinking of it like cranberry juice, since the flavor of tart cherries and cranberries are more similar than cherries to citrus.

Gin and vodka are naturals. Try adding it to a wine spritzer.

Can someone come up with a rum suggestion?

[Alchemist]

For rum, try using it like you would use a pomagranet molassas. A simple Daq. would be good.

2 oz. white rum (Brugal/Monte Cristo/Mnt Gay)

.75 Oz Lime

.75 Oz. simple syrup

cherry to taste.

Shake, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime wheel floating like a lily pad in a lake mirroring the setting sun.

If its really tart back off on the lime, if it has sweet componets back off on the simple.

[fatdeko]

For these sweet-yet-tart syrups (some of these are absolutely stunning), I like to take a "Bramble" approach as a way of getting to know them.

Dick Bradsell, the UK's Potentate of Potables, came up with the Bramble, and it's basically pretty simple: Gin, Lime Juice, Simple Syrple over crushed ice and then a drizzle of Creme de Mure. (Raspberry liquer--hard to find. You can sub Chambord)

I'm not a huge fan of the drink itself, but the template for the drink....now that's a different story. In the original Bramble you start with a more or less finished concoction, something of a gimlet. But what happens next is pure genius. Mist-ify it over crushed ice, then crown it with a liquer. The liquer floats there, adding aroma as you drink, and as the ice melts, soothing the drink, the liquer slowly permeates the rest of the cocktail. Like a well made Old Fashioned or one of Chris Macmillian's Juleps, the drink evolves with each sip and is never the same drink twice.

So the next steps are to build your own Brambles.

1). Get y'self some straight, red blooded Hootch, be it Whisk(e)y, Rum, Gin, Tequila, Akvavit, Pisco etc (Vodka was omitted for a reason)

2). Modify it (citrus juice, bitters, muddled fruit/herbs etc, some type of liquer)

3). Sweeten it (sugar, syrup, flavored syrup, some type of liquer)

4). Build and crown

I recently picked up some sour cherry syrup too. Ferrara, I believe, and have been enjoying it Brambled with Cruzan Blackstrap Rum, Angostura, and Falernum. Sometimes I whack it with an orange twist.

Other thoughts:

A Jack Rose with Cherry syrup instead of the grenadine

A Blinker subbing the raspberry for cherry

myers