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Joanne

HARRIS

 LIqueur

My sour cherry liqueur is especially popular, though I feel a little guilty that I cannot remember the cherry’s name. The secret is to leave the stones in. Layer cherries and sugar one on the other in a widemouthed glass jar, covering each layer gradually with clear spirit (kirsch is best, but you can use vodka or even Armagnac) up to half the jar’s capacity. Top up with spirit and wait. Every month, turn the jar carefully to release any accumulated sugar. In three years’ time, the spirit has bled the cherries white, itself stained deep red now, penetrating even to the stone and the tiny almond inside it, becoming pungent, evocative, a scent of autumn past. Serve in tiny liqueur glasses, with a spoon to scoop out the cherry, and leave it in the mouth until the macerated fruit dissolves under the tongue. Pierce the stone with the point of a tooth to release the liqueur trapped inside and leave it for a long time in the mouth, playing with it with the tip of the tongue, rolling it under, over, like a single prayer bead. Try to remember the time of this ripening, that summer, that hot autumn, the time the well ran dry, the time we had the wasp’s nest, time past, lost, found again in the hard place at the heart of the fruit ...

From Five Quarters Of The Orange

William Morrow, 2021