How To Make A Pickled Cherry Sour

Earlier this week, I made a jar of pickled cherries, and I found them to be pleasing. They are good on cheese plates and they are good in salads, but they absolutely excel in a coupe full of alcohol. The easy move is to plop one in a Manhattan. The expert move is to smash them into some gin.

Though this technically isn’t a “sour” due to the lack of citrus, it certainly tastes sour (because the vinegar), so I’m gonna call it a sour. Does this cocktail recipe require you to make something other than a cocktail? Yes. But pickled cherries are very easy to make, and having them in your house is a good thing. In this case, the sweet and tart brine meshes wonderfully with gin, creating a refreshing, punchy cocktail that sips like a sour. To make one, you will need:

• 5 pickled cherries with about half an ounce of brine (recipe here)

• 60mL gin

• 15mL simple syrup

Add cherries to a cocktail shaker and muddle into oblivion. Add remaining ingredients and fill the shaker with ice, then shake until the shaker becomes too cold to hold comfortably. Strain through a fine mesh sieve and garnish with another pickled cherry.