Boozy. Scarlet. Just sweet enough. These homemade brandied cherries are what maraschinos wish they could be.

If you’ve never been a fan of those overly bright, flavorless cocktail cherries from the store, you’re not alone. These are the antidote. Made with fresh cherries, warm brandy, and just enough sugar to tie it all together, brandied cherries are luxurious, simple, and wildly better than anything on a grocery shelf.

Whether you’re stirring them into Old Fashioneds or spooning them over ice cream, they’re worth every minute.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Only 3 ingredients: cherries, brandy, sugar.

Keeps for months in the fridge, or can them if you prefer.

Tastes like summer and luxury had a baby.

Endlessly customizable! Add vanilla, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves… or don’t.

Perfect for sour or sweet cherries, whatever you’ve got.

What Are Brandied Cherries?

Brandied cherries are fresh cherries preserved in a mixture of sugar and alcohol, most commonly brandy. This old-school preservation method goes back centuries... think Germany’s rumtopf or French preserves steeped in eau de vie.

The concept is simple: alcohol + sugar = a shelf-stable, flavor-packed treat.

I’ve been playing with a lot of fruit and booze lately... brandied apricot preserves, brandied pear jam, and now these cherries. There’s just something about it. You get the full essence of the fruit, a whisper of the spirit, and a syrup that’s good enough to sip.

Ingredients You’ll Need

• Fresh cherries. Sour or sweet, but firm and ripe.
• Sugar. Don’t skimp... this helps preserve the fruit and flavor.
• Brandy. Use something decent, but save the expensive cognac for sipping.

Optional but delicious:

• Vanilla bean or extract
• Cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, whole cloves
• Orange peel

How to Make Brandied Cherries

Prep the Cherries. Rinse and dry your cherries. Remove the stems and pits, or leave the pits in for a more traditional approach. If you leave the pits, pierce each cherry with a toothpick to prevent splitting.

👉 No pitter? Use a straw to poke the pit out from the stem side... it works!

Make a Simple Syrup. In a saucepan, combine ¾ cup sugar with 1 cup water. Bring to a gentle simmer until the sugar is fully dissolved.

Add the Cherries. Stir in the cherries and simmer for about 2 minutes to soften slightly. Then strain them out and set them aside. Keep the syrup.

Cool It All Down. Let both the syrup and the cherries cool to room temperature. You don’t want to pour hot liquid over your brandy.

Pack the Jars. Tightly pack the cooled cherries into a clean pint jar. Mix ½ cup brandy with the reserved syrup and pour over the cherries, leaving about ½ inch headspace.

Age for Flavor. You can eat them right away… but letting them sit for at least a month deepens the flavor dramatically. Give the jar a gentle shake every week or so.

Storage Tips

You can store these the old-fashioned way, in a cool dark pantry if your brandy-to-syrup ratio is high enough, but I prefer to play it safe.

• Refrigerator: Keeps for a year (or more).
• Water bath canning: Process pint jars for 25 minutes if you’d like them shelf-stable.

Tips for Success

• Use good cherries. Bruised or mushy won’t hold up.
• Don’t reduce the sugar. It’s a preservative here, not just a sweetener.
• Use decent brandy. It doesn’t need to be fancy, but don’t use the cheapest stuff either.

How to Use Brandied Cherries

• Old Fashioneds or Manhattans
• Spoon over vanilla ice cream
• Stir into brownies or chocolate cake batter
• Tuck into a holiday charcuterie board
• Eat them straight out of the jar. I won’t tell.

You Might Also Love:

• Old Fashioned No Pectin Raspberry Jam
• Low Sugar Blackberry Jam
• Strawberry Jam