Cherry Sweet Tart Martini

We took a day last week and drove up to a little town in our State called Frankenmuth.  It is a town with German Heritage with wonderful clock shops, German Restaurants and specialty shops.  They often have bands on the sidewalks playing polkas and German folk music that you can stop and enjoy along with one of the many locally brewed German style beers and a Bratwurst from the hot dog cart. Frank and I have been known to polka down the sidewalk a few times.

Frankenmuth also boasts Bronners, "The Largest Christmas Store in the World".  It is huge and an amazing place to visit.  

We met our friends, Bob and Cathy, who live up in Houghton lake.

We ate lunch at a brewery on the river and then walked through some of the new shops they have built in an area they call Riverwalk Plaza.  It was a beautiful day.  Bob and Frank mostly stood outside the stores visiting while Cathy and I went inside and browsed.  Except for the Great Lakes Olive Oil Company and the Grand Traverse Distillery tasting room.








While at the Distillery we purchased a wonderful cherry flavored vodka.  The Grand Traverse area of Michigan is famous for the cherries grown there.  It is also becoming well known for the vineyards and now are making a name for themselves with breweries and distilleries.  It is no wonder that they combine cherries with their wine making, beer brewing and liquor distilling.

We tried a rye vodka that we also enjoyed and picked up as a sipping vodka. This vodka was served in a taste solo and also in a couple of shots.  One was mixed with cream soda...too sweet for me.  I was not a fan.  The other was mixed with lemonade and it was very tasty.  I can see us sitting on the back deck with tall glasses of lemonade spiked with this delicious vodka come summertime.

I absolutely did not want to wait until summertime though to enjoy this vodka and I really liked the way it melded with the lemonade.  So when we had John and Kirs over for dinner we decided to use them as our guinea pigs and concoct a new cocktail to enjoy while waiting for dinner to cook.

We squeezed some fresh lemons

Made some simple syrup 

(equal parts sugar and water, boiled until sugar dissolves and then cooled)

Combined equal parts of each per drink.

We shook them with ice and strained the into a sugar rimmed martini glass.

Garnished each with a maraschino cherry and.......

Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh

We named it Cherry Sweet Tart Martini.

Try it...you'll immediately know why.

Cherry Sweet Tart Martini

1 jigger cherry flavored vodka

1 jigger fresh squeezed lemon juice

1 jigger simple syrup

1 maraschino cherry

sugar for rimming glass

Place the vodka, lemon juice and simple syrup in a cocktail shaker filled with ice.  Shake to completely chill.  Pour into martini glass rimmed with sugar.  Garnish with a maraschino cherry. Print Recipe