Best Tasting Sweet Cherries Ever
Don’t worry I’m going to pitch a bitch!
We in the US are at the tail end of sweet cherry season with the black types still available though now at $7 per pound. Best price I found this season was $2 per pound but they were reddish and smaller and lacked sweetness and flavor.
The month of July is when the Bing cherries are in the stores and always sell well since they have the size, sweetness and flavor most people enjoy, myself included. They’re also freestone too. In season they are found from $4-$6 per pound. I can’t eat many of them when at their sweetest as I like the cherry flavor more than the sweetness.
For the last few years this has lead me to set aside a pound or so that I pick through removing any soft of damaged cherries and then rinsing them in a colander before air drying overnight. Then placing back in their original bag (washed that too) to be shoved to the very back at the bottom of the fridge. This year towards the end of July I found nice looking bing cherries for $3 per pound. These were slightly smaller though definitely bings but were noticeably a bit past their prime. A few were still quite sweet but with more of a cherry flavor present…….which is why I chose to set them aside to sit in the fridge for another four weeks to see if that cherry flavor could be enhanced.
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Usually this results in a mixed bag so to speak with some cherries meeting expectations but most don’t…..usually ending up on the bland side or even some seemingly sweeter. I’m happy to report this year was a complete success! Not a single cherry was moldy or sweet or bland. Instead they had the most fantastic pronounced cherry flavor that I love. I really can’t explain it better than that. The flavor had no hint of fermentation either. This was simply cherry flavor somehow enhanced with age and perhaps a slight dehydration…..though the skins were smooth not crinkly. They were awesome.
The cherries by this time were still firm, blacker in color, stem dark brown and dry, with a firm hold on the pit and still freestone. The generic bag had ‘Sweet Cherries’ from Washington State and packed out of Yakima, WA.
You might want to try setting some aside to give it a try yourself……which begs the question ‘Why the fuck do we have to do all that work?’ lol.
Thanks for reading!
