#ScribesAndMakers 2025.07.22 — Show us something you've created. Tell us the story behind it.

There's not much of a story, here. Both my spouse and I have families where preserving fruit in alcohol was a thing (Ukrainian & Italian extraction). In both traditions, what got used was with a neutral spirit, aka vodka. My grandmother used to make her vodka, and reportedly blew up the kitchen sink in a Chicago apartment a long time ago.

These cherries are preserved in bourbon, and newly made so they've about a month to go to be fully enjoyed. I'm creative when it comes to food and food preparation, so a few years ago after making vodka cherries and having left over cherries after running out of the Tito's, I tried a bunch of things like Triple Sec and Old Granddad. The batch I made with Uncle Nearest generated a fandom.

Sadly, I used my reserved Uncle Nearest for this batch. The new bottles just bought, obviously made by a distiller who bought out the original entrepreneurs, cheapened it. It was obvious: dark brown verse light reddish brown, even discounting the address change. Sad.

I think they'll make good cherries next year, though, if not for drinking neat.

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Quart bottles stuffed with dark cherries, mixed with a solutions of mostly bourbon and sage honey diluted in water. The resulting cherry bourbon cordial is wonderful, as are the boozy cherries. An empty bottle of Uncle Nearest 1856 lays empty in the foreground.
Quart bottles stuffed with dark cherries, mixed with a solutions of mostly bourbon and sage honey diluted in water. The resulting cherry bourbon cordial is wonderful, as are the boozy cherries. An empty bottle of Uncle Nearest 1856 lays empty in the foreground.