Aren't they just yummilly beautiful?

Summertime, and the living is easy.

The moment to enjoy refreshing fruity cocktails, and also the moment when wonderful sour cherries are ripe and juicy.

I am sure that there are lots of different ways to combine these two things, and I am equally sure that many of them are fantastic. What I am not so sure of is that many of them could possibly be better than this one.

Sour cherry caipirinha is definitely one thing that I am going to be drinking plenty of over the next few weeks.

Take a caipirinha

For anyone who doesn’t know, the caipirinha is THE Brazilian cocktail. It’s super simple, lime and sugar muddled together, some cachaça added, and served over lots of ice.

Outside of Brazil, caipirinhas, along with mojitos, are by far the most popular cocktails in Barcelona, you can get them at every little bar, and so I do far too often.

Cocktail purists will of course maintain that anything that varies from the above is not a caipirinha, but hey, this version just adds one little ingredient.

Sour (or tart) cherries…

… are without doubt one of the best fruits anywhere. I defy anyone not to love them!

I’m not talking about bitter unripe cherries, but the varieties that are naturally tart. Some people might know them by the alternative names of ‘tart cherries’, or ‘pie cherries’. Whatever you want to call them, they taste amazing.

The only problem is that they have a really short season, so during the little bit of the year when I can get my hands on them, I throw them in everything I can think of. So far this week there have been caipirinhas and ice cream, and a lemon and cherry posset is coming soon.

Recipe

Apart from the fact that it contains the cherries, the big difference between this and a ‘proper’ caipirinha is the way it is served. Not over ice in a big glass, but shaken and then strained.

The ingredients listed are for one drink, but if you have a shaker of any sensible size then you can easily make two or three at once.

1. Take the pits out of the cherries, cut the lime into a few chunks, and put them together into a shaker.

2. Give them a good old muddle until everything is well mushed up.

3. Add a decent amount of ice and the Cachaça, and shake well.

4. Fine strain into a cocktail glass.

Extra note

This drink tastes especially good if you have a production line of attractive women in your kitchen making them in large numbers.