For 13 years, the Cherry Bounce has been one of many high sellers at Comstock Saloon in San Francisco. The drink is a bourbon-based Whiskey Bitter made with brandied cherry juice, lemon and Angostura bitters, plus a splash of prosecco. Again when Comstock Saloon was in its early days, a pal of proprietor Jonny Raglin instructed him a few drink known as Cherry Bounce that he’d seen talked about in a e-book about Twentieth-century chop suey eating places. Raglin’s pal instructed him that the drink had been served at an previous bar in Hollywood within the years following World Warfare II, and that it was a easy combination of cherry brandy and glowing wine. Raglin took that as a immediate for creating his personal take.
Regardless of the happenstance beginnings of this “Cherry Bounce” cocktail, the unique cherry bounce has a for much longer historical past. Cherry bounce was initially a time period for a do-it-yourself liqueur, normally rye- or brandy-based, made with bitter cherries and sugar, and flavored with spices. The earliest recipes date to late Seventeenth-century England, and the liqueur made its approach to the British colonies in North America, evidenced by the well-known recipe credited to Martha Washington. It’s a divine nectar. This author has made it utilizing sugar, vanilla, and native western Massachusetts bitter cherries, letting the combination sit from July till Thanksgiving, and by no means earlier than have I been so happy with a do-it-yourself infusion.
Raglin ultimately started digging into the historical past of the unique cherry bounce, and was taken with tales of George Washington’s fondness for it. “It was like this bottled cordial, and Washington took it with him on his treks and he would commerce port and Madeira with Native Individuals. I don’t know if any of that is true,” says Raglin, however supposedly, “he would hold the cherry bounce for he and his males.”
Although probably the most well-known surviving recipe is credited to Martha Washington, on condition that the Washingtons enslaved virtually 600 individuals throughout their time at Mount Vernon, together with the employees of their rye distillery, it’s extra doubtless that an enslaved particular person working of their family developed the recipe. The elements embody cinnamon, clove and nutmeg; it additionally requires cracked cherry pits, which impart an almond-like taste (however include hint quantities of cyanide). Housekeeping manuals from the pre–Civil Warfare interval characteristic related recipes.
For his cocktail, Raglin says the recipe got here collectively one morning earlier than lunch service. He made a easy Whiskey Bitter with the brandied cherry juice from the bar’s favored model, Griottines, changing many of the sugar (bolstered by a small measure of easy syrup), and splashed a little bit of prosecco on the finish. He added bitters to offer the drink extra dimension and spiced taste, which unwittingly nods to the 18th-century model.
The selection to make use of bourbon was pure at a bar that for a few years was the largest 4 Roses account west of the Mississippi. The Griottines cherry juice, Raglin says, is “principally cherry bounce” within the previous sense. Although he’s tried utilizing Cherry Heering as an alternative on this drink, nothing however the Griottines juice will do. Different cherry brandies and liqueurs, he says, have the issue of reminding individuals of cherry-flavored cough syrup.
Raglin studies that the Cherry Bounce has a large attraction to massive swaths of shoppers who come into the bar. “It’s not such a elaborate whiskey cocktail that your hardened bro that drinks Previous-Fashioneds wouldn’t have one and revel in it.” Nevertheless it additionally appeals to those that don’t usually gravitate towards whiskey drinks, too. The liqueur model is equally a crowd-pleaser: It captures the perfection of summer season fruit, carrying it by into the darkish days of winter.
For such a easy beverage, the Comstock Saloon’s Cherry Bounce has had unbelievable endurance on the bar’s menu. Raglin factors to its vast attraction as a Whiskey Bitter riff, however he maintains that he’s by no means heard a greater title for a cocktail. “With a reputation like that,” says Raglin, “it must style horrible to not achieve success.”
