At this time of year I really enjoy having nights in with my friends, watching cheesy Saturday-night TV and enjoying a good home-cooked meal. We also like to mix up the occasional cocktail and this week I tried out a new ingredient for our evening cocktails: cherry juice. When I picked up some cocktail ingredients at the supermarket, I came across Cherry Good and my mouth started watering! I was sure it would go nicely with the limes, lemons, juices and mixers in my trolley so when I got home I looked up drink recipes on their website and tried out a few.
The first recipe I tried was a cherry sour, because whisky sours is one of my favourite drinks ever and I wanted to know how it would compare if mixed up with cherry juice. Thankfully it was delicious and I tried a couple more of these cheeky cocktail recipes over the course of the weekend. Here they are, and I hope that you’ll enjoy them too:
Cherry Sour: 2 measures vodka, 6 measures cherry juice drink, 1 measure freshly squeezed lemon juice, 2 measures lemonade, garnish with a fresh cherry on a stick or a slice of lemon. Half fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Pour over vodka, Cherry Good and lemon juice. Shake to mix and chill. Pour into a tall glass with ice and top up with the lemonade. 
Michigan Impossible 2 measures whisky, 4 measures Cherry Good juice, 1 measure freshly squeezed lime juice, 1 measure sugar syrup and optional 2 measures of lemonade to make a taller drink with ice. Half fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Pour over whisky, cherry juice, lime juice and sugar syrup. Shake to mix and chill. The lemonade is optional, to make a longer drink in a taller glass with ice. Sugar syrup is easy to make, by dissolving sugar into water (50/50) and heating it. Even simpler is pouring boiling water onto sugar and stirring, but make sure it’s cool before you use it!
Non-alcoholic cherry and honey: 200ml Cherry Good cherry juice drink, 100ml water, juice of half a lemon, 2 tablespoons honey, a pinch of salt (preferably unprocessed sea salt) Mix all the ingredients together, until the honey is dissolved. Add the salt last and adjust the amount to suit your own taste – not too salty.
These recipes are fast becoming my firm favourites and I will definitely be adding these to my Christmas party cocktail list too. Let me know if you give them a try and remember to drink responsibly! I also tried mixing up my own cocktail using the juice and here’s what I came up with:
Cherry Apple 1 measure apple schnapps, 2 measures Cherry Good, 2 measures apple juice. Fill a tall cocktail glass with crushed ice and pour in the ingredients and stir to mix.
Of course there are many more cocktails and mocktail recipes that you can find online and mix up so let me know if you find any other interesting recipes containing cherry juice. And if you’re interested in learning cocktail-making skills for yourself why not consider taking a course to develop your knowledge? Search for bartending courses from training providers such as CHT Melbourne and take the first step towards learning new skills and possibly creating a new career for yourself. Studying on a course is a great way to learn more about mixology and bar skills – plus you can meet new friends at the same time. Best of luck!
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