Why You Should Chop Your Sundae Cherries

A single, vivid red cherry on top of a sundae is an iconic visual, steeped in nostalgia. Unfortunately, it’s also the wrong move. Topping your sundae with a single cherry means you only get to eat one cherry, and I reject that notion (for me, for you, for the world). Your sundae needs multiple cherries, and those cherries should be chopped.

Maraschino cherry is a flavour best distributed

Maybe it’s because I’m a communist, but when it comes to cherries, I’m staunchly in favour of redistributing the wealth of flavour. (I also love the colour!) Why should there only be one burst of candied fruitiness for the ice cream eater to enjoy, when there could be many such moments punctuating the sundae experience? Are we not revolutionaries, free to alter the material conditions under which we live (and eat ice cream)? Are we not hungry — hungry for cherries?

Economics aside, there’s also the matter of flavour: A whole maraschino cherry is a lot to take in at once. The taste can be cloying, and it will saturate your palate if you’re not careful. Slicing and dicing them into little bits and sprinkling them over your entire bowl of ice cream will create a more balanced, harmonious bite of dessert. (You can also stir the bits into the ice cream and to make cherry ice cream, or chocolate-cherry ice cream, depending on the base flavour of your frozen dairy dessert.)

You can still crown the whole thing with an iconic single cherry for the visual effect. You can also ignore my ramblings entirely, but I believe if you consider my words carefully, you’ll find that my arguments are sound, and that my reasoning exists in a reasonable form. (I cannot say that is true of all my writing, but I’m pretty confident about this cherry thing.)