Bottle Buy: Cherry Heering

Cherry Heering is a surprisingly difficult spirit to find information on. Given how long it's been around, I thought there would be a lot more out there. Even the Heering website doesn't really have much by way of history or details about how Cherry Heering is made. They do have a pretty cute advertising campaign right now (click on "Our Brand"), but they're light on the details. Luckily you don't have to know everything about a liqueur to enjoy it.

What I do know is that Cherry Heering is a Danish liqueur made from spirits, cherries, and spices that is aged in wooden casks. What spirits, you ask? Well, some sites say brandy and others say grain spirits. (I emailed Heering to ask, but they haven't gotten back to me yet. I'll update this if I find out.) The liqueur was invented by Peter F. Heering, who founded the company that produces it in 1818. It spread throughout the British Empire and is most notably included in the Singapore Sling, a cocktail I will definitely be covering soon. Today it is still produced by the same company, which doesn't appear to have been acquired by any of the big conglomerates.

Cherry Heering smells deliciously like brandied cherries. Its taste is much more subdued and complex than I expected. It's sweet, of course, but not absurdly so, and there's a lovely hint of spice at the end. I think I'd enjoy it straight after dinner. It's a fairly versatile ingredient that is also finding its way into a number of modern cocktails. There's a nice list of cocktail recipes on Heering's website. It can be used whenever cherry brandy is called for, but it is often specified by name.

I enjoyed this article by Tony Sachs in which he gets to taste two aged bottles of Cherry Heering, one from 1888.

Cherry Heering

Price: $30
Alcohol content: 24%
Popular cocktails: Singapore Sling, Blood & Sand, Remember the Maine

I probably should have made the well-known Blood & Sand to showcase Cherry Heering, but I don't have a bottle of blended Scotch. Instead, I suggest the Remember the Maine, which is a really good cocktail. It's sort of a Manhattan crossed with a Sazerac. It actually reminds me quite a bit of the De La Louisiane, the main difference being the replacement of the very herbal Benedictine with Cherry Heering. I kind of wish I could have a couple of those other cocktails side-by-side with this one to do a comparison and really pick out the flavor of the Cherry Heering in this one. It's subtle, but it's a natural pairing with rye and sweet vermouth.

History: The "Maine" we're meant to be remembering with this cocktail is the USS Maine, a naval ship that sank off the coast of Havana, Cuba on February 15, 1898 during the Cuban War of Independence. Though it remains unclear whether the ship was deliberately fired upon by the Spanish or whether a coal fire ignited its own ammunition, American journalists rushed to blame Spain in an effort to spur the US to declare war. Their rallying cry became, "Remember the Maine, to Hell with Spain!" Later that year, the Spanish-American War began.

The Remember the Maine was invented or discovered by Charles H. Baker and first published in his 1939 book The Gentleman's Companion: Around the World with Jigger, Beaker, and Flask. By way of explanation, he writes:

"Remember the Maine, a hazy memory of a night in Havana during the unpleasantness of 1933, when each swallow was punctuated with bombs going off on the Prado, or the sound of 3" shells being fired at the hotel Nacional, then haven for certain anti-revolutionary officers."

The unpleasantness Baker is referring to was a coup called the Revolt of the Sergeants led by Fulgencio Batista against the Cuban government. The coup ended with Ramon Grau San Martin becoming president. Interestingly, it was only 100 days before Batista deposed him as well, putting Carlos Mendieta into power. This became something of a trend, with four more presidents coming and going before Batista himself was elected president in 1940.

Anyway, Baker, who traveled the world collecting cocktail recipes, was in Havana during Batista's coup. But where did the recipe come from? An earlier publication, The Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book, includes a recipe identical to the Remember the Maine called McKinley's Delight - interesting since William McKinley was the U.S. president during the Spanish-American War. It's likely that these recipes share a single origin, with the McKinley's Delight the older of the two. In the 1896 U.S. presidential election, McKinley faced off against William Jennings Bryan, and for some reason they both ended up with signature cocktails: the McKinley's Delight for McKinley and the Free Silver Fizz (gin, lime, sugar, egg white, club soda) for Bryan. Quite a bit of history for one cocktail!

Remember the Maine

2 oz. rye
3/4 oz. sweet vermouth
2 tsp. Cherry Heering
1 dash absinthe (I used Herbsaint)

Add absinthe to a coupe glass and swirl to coat. Combine remaining ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir until chilled. Strain into the prepared glass. Garnish with a brandied cherry.

Recipe from Punch.