Shake Up Happy Hour With A Copycat Sour Cherry Gin Cocktail

Ready-to-drink (RTD) cocktails are the hottest thing on the market and the category is growing like wildfire. According to the Distilled Spirits Council (DISCUS), revenues increased by 42% in 2020-2021 and you can read more about it in this article by Joseph Micallef.

Generally classic cocktails inspire RTDs. But, in the case of this Sour Cherry Gin Highball the opposite is true.

I wasn’t a fan of RTDs in the beginning, but I have to say that as the category is growing, they are getting better and better. It goes without saying that the better the spirits and the mixers, the better the RTD.

I recently tasted the Luxardo RTD Sour Cherry Gin and Tonic. It was light, refreshing and slightly fruity with just enough bitterness to make it sophisticated. As someone who doesn’t drink gin very often I was unexpectedly smitten. I really liked that the drink tasted more like a highball than [my definition of] a gin and tonic as the tonic was faintly in the background.

When I did a little digging I discovered that Luxardo makes a sour cherry gin which is infused with the same sour Marasca cherries it uses to produce its famous Maraschino liqueur [I feel like I might be one of the few people who didn’t know this]. So, it makes sense that they would create a ready-to-drink cocktail using that product.

I wondered if I could re-create something close to their pre-made cocktail from scratch. I had a bottle of Luxardo Maraschino liqueur that I had purchased for a recipe that I made years ago. The bottle had been collecting dust and instead of buying a bottle of sour cherry gin, I decided to try to re-create the drink with Citadelle gin. To my palate, Citadelle is soft and refined, crisp and bright with citrus and not overwhelmingly juniper and that was the gin experience I was looking for in this sour cherry libation.

To accentuate the cherry flavor, I used Fee Brothers cherry bitters and balanced it out with lime-flavored Perrier. It was good but it needed a little more sourness and so I added half a ounce or so of fresh squeezed lemon juice. That was the ticket and the drink sparkled. It was both fruity and crisp with cherry; refreshing and light just as I remembered the Luxardo pre-made drink to be.

To make it pretty, I froze whole cherries with stems on, and used them both to cool the drink and as a garnish that was delightful to nibble on once the drink was done.

Sour Cherry Gin Highball

Makes 1 drink

3 frozen sweet cherries with stem

Ice

1/4 ounce Luxardo Cherry Liqueur

1/2 ounce fresh juice from a lemon

1 1/2 ounces Citadelle gin

3 dashes of Cherry Bitters

2-4 ounces lime Perrier or seltzer

In the bottom of a highball glass, place 2 frozen sweet cherries and fill the glass with ice.

Stir together the Luxardo, the lemon juice, the gin and the bitters for a few seconds until everything is combined. (If you like a stronger drink, use 2 ounces of gin.) Pour over the ice and top with seltzer.

Garnish with remaining cherry and serve.

NOTE: If you prefer to buy the RTD Luxardo Sour Cherry Gin and Tonic, it is sold in a four-pack of 250 ml cans for a suggested retail price of $20.00. It can be purchased where you purchase spirits.