Cocktails with Cherry soda
Cherry soda is a non-alcoholic carbonated soft drink flavoured to taste of cherry.
Taste profile
Sweet cherry flavour over a light, low-acid body, carried by a medium cherry aroma and lifted by carbonation.
How it's used
Poured late over the build as a lengthener, it adds its own sweetness, colour and fizz; it is added gently and not stirred hard, since the carbonation dissipates once opened or shaken.
Substitutes for Cherry soda
As a bulk mixer its cherry character defines the drink and it is not freely swappable, but a small top-off can be rebuilt from plain soda water with a dash of cherry syrup; the substitute must keep both the cherry flavour and the carbonation, with sweetness adjustable by sugar syrup and colour by a splash of red syrup or grenadine.
Often confused with
Cherry cola
Cherry cola is a cola base — caramel-coloured, carrying cola flavourings such as kola and spice notes — with cherry flavour added on top, whereas a plain cherry soda is a clear or red cherry-flavoured carbonated drink with no cola base.
Description
Manufacturers combine carbonated water with a sweetener and a cherry flavouring, charging the water with carbon dioxide under pressure to produce the fizz. The cherry character may come from natural cherry or from natural and artificial flavourings, and it does not require real cherry juice.
