Chocolate-Filled Cherry Day

???

I think what they really meant was chocolate-covered cherry day.  Generally that means a chocolate-covered maraschino cherry, sometimes infused with a liqueur of some sort or another.  The problem is; I detest maraschino cherries.  Like, ewww. There’s nothing natural about that brilliant pink (or worse, green) colour.  Uck.  I don’t understand maraschinos.  I don’t get the allure.  I think they’re gross.  Even the method of creating them is gross.  According to Wiki,

A maraschino cherry … is a preserved, sweetened cherry, typically made from light-coloured sweet cherries such as the Royal Ann, Rainier, or Gold varieties. The cherries are first preserved in a brine solution usually containing sulphur dioxide or alcohol, then soaked in a suspension of food coloring (common red food dye, FD&C Red 40), sugar syrup, and other components. Maraschino cherries dyed red are typically almond-flavoured, while cherries dyed green are sometimes peppermint-flavoured [I went ahead and Canadianized the American spelling]

First question: why would you do that to a beautiful Rainier cherry?

Della went so far as to make me my very own fruitcake for Christmas, believing (correctly) that my whole issue with fruitcake was the gross, wrongly-coloured (and flavoured) cherries.

So, how about a chocolate-cherry martini?

We’ve tried our hardest to share recipes whenever we can.  I thought, “hmmmm… maybe we could try making a chocolate liqueur, so I could brag about, and share the recipe here.”  Of course, I thought of it today, and the best-looking recipe I found is a two-week recipe.  Not so much.

Enter Godiva Chocolate liqueur.

But this is “Chocolate-filled cherry day” – whatever that means. For me, that at least means that if I’m having a chocolate martini, it has to include a cherry. Enter cherry liqueur. There’s an awesome-looking recipe for Sour Cherry Liqueur here!  Again, no time to figure it out.

I considered kirsch, which I tend to have on hand to throw into champagne, as required.  “Too sweet,” I though.  So, what about cherry brandy?

What a good idea.

In the end, I still needed a bit of voddy to water it down.

So, recipe:

• 1 ½ oz Godiva Milk Chocolate Liqueur (so delicious. Like chocolate milk, only way worse for you)
  
• 1 ½ oz cherry brandy
• 1 oz vodka

Shake, pour into martini glass, garnish with a fresh (NOT maraschino) cherry.

Frankly delicious, in a creamy, bad-for-you kind of way.  It looked somewhat like this:

Chocolate-Cherry (okay, close enough) martinis, from: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/40/80025939_9a82ff757e.jpg

Did I mention my camera has officially died?  My lens cap (automatic) no longer opens automatically.  I tried taking a picture of the martini with my cell phone, but I’m apparently too silly, because it wouldn’t focus.

Sigh.

Happy New Year!

~Eva