Cocktail #44: Callaloo Cooler

I'd seen a few exotic cocktails in the books I've been using that incorporate the liqueur Cherry Heering (the classic, most well known being the Singapore Sling). As Imbibe Magazine notes, Cheery Heering is "a ruby-red liqueur made by soaking lightly crushed Danish cherries and a blend of spices in neutral grain spirits, then cask-maturing the mixture for up to five years, adding sugar during the aging process." This liqueur didn't sound particularly appealing to me, nor particularly versatile. And it is probably yet another $25+ bottle that would barely see the light of day. So, I usually skipped those drinks.

But the other day I was visiting my trusty suburban Binny's Beverage Depot, and took a gander at the airplane bottle section (not available in Chicago city limits locations due to blue laws). Sometimes you can find weird spirits in the airplane bottle section - spirits that you don't normally use, and certainly don't need an entire bottle of - for a couple bucks. As I spun the rack, I noticed a cherry liqueur (though not the actual brand, Cherry Heering). Price: $1.99. Done. I took it home, and looked it up online to compare it to the genuine article. Turns out this version - Montmorency - is made in Bosnia-Herzegovina (rather than Denmark), has an ABV of 25% (rather than 21.8%), and, like Heering, is made from real cherries. Not bad.


I then set out to find a cocktail recipe that incorporated it, and found one in Smuggler's Cove - the Callaloo Cooler.

Created by Melissa Garcia, the recipe is as follows:

1.00 oz. seltzer
0.75 oz. fresh lime juice
0.50 oz. cinnamon syrup
0.50 oz. Cherry Heering
2.00 oz. blended lightly aged rum (I used Mount Gay)
1 dash Angostura bitters

Pour the seltzer into a Collins or highball glass. Add remaining ingredients to a cocktail shaker with cubed or cracked ice. Shake and strain into the Collins or highball glass. Carefully add cubed or cracked ice to the glass to fill and garnish with grated cinnamon and a mint sprig.

This cocktail could easily go into Robitussin territory. But, the proportions are just right. I can imagine that some folks might get a taste of the cherry liqueur and immediately associate with a cough syrup flavor, which obviously would be a turn-off. So you want to measure carefully. For me, I tend to go for spicier, drier cocktails and even though you wouldn't think that cherry fits that description, for me, that is the general profile of this drink. The cinnamon and bitters temper the cherry liqueur in a really nice way, and all the flavors, including the rum, meld together really well. Maybe not one of my absolute favorites, but I did really like this drink and would easily make it again. 

And here's why I love YouTube - the person who posted this writes, "Probably never used commercially this jingle came from a demo record that was found in a job-lot of 78s. The record had 2 versions, this 'cha cha' version and a beat version on the other side."

So, I leave you with a Cha Cha Cherry Heering jingle. Until next time, cheers!