Day 59: Ch Ch Ch Ch Ch Cherry Bombed

 

Doesn't even look cherry

The Cherry Sling* is supposed to be made with cherry-flavored brandy and lemon juice. Instead of cherry-flavored brandy we used Kirsch, which is brandy distilled from cherries.  We have a great book called The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Wine, Beer, Spirits, and Liqueur and it says “confusingly, Kirsch is not related to cherry brandy.”  Yes, that is confusing that a product that is brandy distilled from cherries is not cherry brandy.  I am already easily confused, so I don’t need foodstuffs out there trying to intentionally trip me up.  At least we aren’t the only ones confused by it.

It turns out that using Kirsch instead of cherry-flavored brandy was a big mistake. Kirsch is very strong and doesn’t really have much cherry flavor (if any).  Cherry-flavored brandy is a super-sweet liqueur that has strong cherry flavor.  *Because of that, the drink we made wasn’t really a Cherry Sling but something much worse.  It really was truly horrible.  The drink was 1/3 lemon juice with no sweet elements at all to balance it.  The two ounces of 80-proof Kirsch only added some burn.  I am down with sweet burning, but sour burning is no fun.

No idea why we thought this was cherry brandy

This is actually the second time we used Kirsch in a drink that probably was supposed to use the other stuff.  In that case it worked out, but it might have been better if we had used the cherry brandy instead. This is an embarrassing mistake for TBIAW but I can’t promise we won’t make similar ones in the future.  Despite our outward appearance, we are only human. I don’t really have much else to say other than to look out for these trick foods.  It turns out that spotted dick isn’t something you always have to avoid.

Overall Rating for the Cherry Sling*

Taste: 1

Presentation: 3

Ease of Preparation: -1 due to confusing ingredients

Drinks Until Blackout: 5 – 27% Alcohol

Ingredients

2 oz Cherry-flavored Brandy

1 oz Lemon Juice