This is another one of those posts that’s mostly Ginuary but with a bit of “I love Tasmania”, and it’s because today, I went cherry-picking.

Cherry Crush

• 45ml gin
• 30ml maraschino liqueur
• 15ml lemon juice
• 5 x whole (pitted) cherries

 

Muddle four of the cherries in a bar glass with the lemon juice and maraschino. Add gin and ice, shake it baby. Double-strain into a chilled cocktail glass*. Garnish with the fifth cherry.

 

 

*Alternative serving option: double-strain over ice into rocks glass.

Intense colour! Fresh cherries! Overwhelming happiness! This drink only used five cherries, so excuse me while I go make another fifty cocktails.

See, one of my friends (in her great wisdom) rented a cherry tree for the season, and today was harvest day. A few of us loped down to the Huon valley with buckets and bags and lunchboxes, ready to fill them with giant, plump cherries. I thought perhaps we were getting a bit carried away with the number of containers we were taking; I was wrong. We picked around 20kg of cherries. I ended up with 8kg all to myself. I’m a little beside myself.

You’ll note that I’ve photographed my cobbler shaker but today I actually attempted to upgrade to the Boston shaker! Gasp! I wanted to try to get some good muddling photos (I didn’t) and yes, I panicked over the shaker getting sealed together (I did).

Ah, Maraschino. Thank goodness I’ve found somewhere else to put you to use other than the Aviation I bought you for. If only you were Luxardo, maybe I’d feel more affection for you.

I need to get a decent wooden muddler because this plastic guy is pretty wack. (Today is going to be my day for complaining. I can feel it.)

Hello, McHenry Classic! I think it’s kind of funny and cute that both times I’ve had McHenry’s now, it’s been with cherry featured—first back on the 3rd at the Taste Festival, and now ten days later with my own lovely bottle.

I’ve been thinking about McHenry’s a bit over the last ten days, because their distillery is down at Port Arthur, which was a danger zone during the recent Tasmanian bushfires that made international news! The good news is that the nearest fires to McHenry’s were 5km away and the distillery was safe, but it would have been a scary few days. The road to Port Arthur has just opened up again to the public today, which is wonderful news. No more dry heat please, weather! Tassie can’t take another scare like that!

Look at me, all “trying to use a Boston shaker” and all! I think I might do some practice runs with just ice and water so I can really get the hang of the bang (what a sassy phrase) to disconnect the two pieces. It’s tricky for a beginner!

Here comes another complaint: I also need to get a bigger strainer. I need a strainer the perfect size for cocktails. Everything is too difficult.

BUT there we have it, folks: glory. Pure glory.

A really fresh and delicious cocktail. Sweetened naturally with the cherries combining with the Maraschino, this was almost too sweet, which almost sounds silly to say. I ended up trying some poured over ice in a rocks glass and topped with soda water, which ended up dramatically cutting out the sweetness.

Then I drank both the straight-up version and the rocks version at the same time, and I felt ridiculous and also very happy with my decision. In the end I decided that both versions were awesome. Also the boozy cherry at the end was overwhelmingly delicious.