Oak-aged sour cherry liqueur
A 30% sour cherry liqueur, made the traditional Polish way and then rested on toasted oak. A little peated Islay whisky brings an earthy, smoky note, and a short steep of coffee and cacao adds the caramel, coffee and chocolate depth of a cask that once held dark beer. It shares its oak, cacao and whisky with the oak-aged honey liqueur. Treat the amounts as a starting point and tune them by taste.
- Vodka in
- 2 L
- Liqueur out
- about 2.6 L
- Strength
- roughly 30% ABV
- Start to bottle
- about 9 weeks
Shopping list
Amounts scale with the batch size above. The method text uses the 2 L amounts.
Botanicals to order online
| Got it | Botanical | Per batch | Product |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oak cubes, medium toastQuercus (Hungarian oak) | 20 g | Hungarian medium toast oak cubes, 3 oz amazon.com/dp/B00AFF3C1E |
|
| Cacao nibsTheobroma cacao | 4 g | Navitas Organics cacao nibs, 8 oz amazon.com/dp/B000OQ4A3S |
Grocery store
Liquor store
Equipment
Know your botanicals
Oak cubes, medium toast Quercus (Hungarian oak)
Polish: kostki dębowe, średnio opiekane · 20 g
In the bag: dark brown 1 cm wooden cubes, charred on the edges, smelling of vanilla and toast
Brings: the barrel, gentle vanilla and toast under the cherry
Check: same bag as the oak-aged honey liqueur
Cacao nibs Theobroma cacao
Polish: kruszone ziarno kakaowca · 4 g
In the bag: crunchy dark brown shards of crushed cacao bean, bitter chocolate smell
Brings: dark chocolate depth that suits cherry
Check: same bag as the oak-aged honey liqueur; unsweetened
Method
First comes a classic Polish wiśniówka: cherries steeped in vodka, then sugared to draw out a dark syrup. The combined liqueur then rests on oak, gets coffee and cacao for its last two days, and a little smoky whisky at the end.
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Day 0
Start the cherry jar
Thaw frozen cherries, or pit fresh ones, and cover them with the vodka. Seal the jar, keep it dark, and swirl it every few days.
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Day 14
Pour off, then sugar the cherries
Pour the vodka into a clean bottle without pressing the fruit; this is the first extract. Cover the cherries left in the jar with the sugar, seal it, and turn the jar once a day for a week as the sugar draws out a dark syrup.
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Day 21
Press, combine and add the oak
Strain the sugared cherries through cheesecloth and press them well, combine the syrup with the first extract, and add the oak cubes.
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Weeks 4–6
Taste every week
Take the oak out when soft vanilla and toast are clear but the cherry still leads. Cherry is more delicate than honey, so this is usually sooner than you expect.
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Last 2 days on oak
Add coffee and cacao
Tie the coffee beans and cacao nibs in cheesecloth, hang the bundle in the jar for 48 hours at most, then lift it out together with the oak.
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Oak out
Add the smoke
Stir in 20 ml of the peated Scotch and taste. Add up to 10 ml more if you want it, but keep the smoke well behind the cherry.
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Then 2–4 weeks
Settle, filter and bottle
Cherries throw sediment. Let it stand a week or two, pour it off the sediment, filter it through coffee filters and bottle it. Rest it at least two more weeks before opening.
Keep it safe
- Never crush or grind cherry pits. The kernels contain amygdalin, which releases cyanide when crushed. Frozen pitted cherries avoid the question altogether.
- Sort fresh cherries and throw out any with mold; one bad cherry can spoil the jar.
- Use food-grade oak sold for wine or beer making, never hardware-store wood.
Tuning the next batch
- Too sweet: use 250 g of sugar on the cherries next time.
- Too tart: stir in a little simple syrup.
- Smoke too strong: add the whisky 10 ml at a time next time, and stop sooner.
- Too woody: take the oak out earlier, or use 15 g.
To serve
Serve it at room temperature or lightly chilled in small glasses, with a square of dark chocolate, or poured over vanilla ice cream.
