If you love maraschino cherries, don't read this.

I followed my curiosity - and was surprised by what I learned.

Last month at a restaurant in the US, my seven-year-old ordered a sundae for dessert.

And it looked just like all the sundaes I remembered having as a kid growing up in the US.

Vanilla ice cream. Chocolate sauce. Whipped cream.

And a cherry on top.

It looks natural, doesn’t it?

Maybe for those of us who grew up in the US, but seeing this sundae made me pause.

While ice cream may be a popular dessert on a kids’ menu in many parts of the world, I can’t remember ever seeing a sundae in the UK served with a cherry on top. (Not saying they don’t exist, but I’ve not seen them.)

In my world, ice cream and cherries are like Vin Diesel and movies with fast cars –they just go together. I grew up in a town where the most popular ice cream place topped every ice cream cone with a maraschino cherry. They were so dedicated to this pairing that their slogan was “Home of the Cone with a Cherry on Top.”

(Look - they even trademarked their slogan!)

Seeing a neon cherry for the first time in a long time, I wondered where maraschino cherries come from – and why they taste so different from the cherries I can buy in the fruit section at the supermarket.

And like my research on the origins of Pringles, I was surprised by what I learned…

It turns out those ubiquitous shiny red maraschino cherries topping ice cream and decorating cocktails are not the original maraschino cherries.

But those bright red cherries were created to solve a problem.

The original maraschino cherries were made with a sour, dark variety called marasca cherries, and used to make a liqueur called ‘Maraschino.’

They were cultivated in an Italian province (now part of Croatia) and candied in a syrup of marasca cherry juice and sugar. 

The maraschino cherry became popular in Europe in the 19th century, and later in the US as Americans brought them back from their European travels. 

By the early 1900s, maraschino cherries were bobbing around cocktails in New York City, and being enjoyed primarily by the wealthy, as they were expensive and hard to find. 

Then a cheaper European version of ‘maraschino cherries’ hit the US market. They were made using sugar and dyes, and flavoured with vanilla or almond. They weren’t made with marasca cherries – but Americans still devoured them. (Interestingly, the debate over what a ‘real’ maraschino cherry was led to the US Food & Drug Administration getting involved. In 1912, they decided that the label ‘maraschino cherries’ should only be applied to marasca cherries preserved in maraschino. This debate picked up again in 1939, and you can read the FDA’s updated policy about marascino cherries here).

But as the cherry’s popularity grew, farmers in Oregon saw an opportunity.

The Oregon climate was well-suited to growing cherries – but they had a problem.

The Queen Anne cherry that thrived in Oregon spoiled quickly, and took on a mushy consistency when preserved in a brine. That made them soft and squishy – and less desirable – than their counterparts imported from Europe.

That’s when Ernest Wiegand got involved…

Ernest Wiegand

In 1925, Wiegand, a horticulturist at Oregon Agricultural College (now Oregon State University), began working on a new preservation process to help local cherry growers. He focused on figuring out how to best preserve the shape and structure of local cherries to the standards Americans expected. 

It took him six years – but eventually, he discovered that adding calcium salts to the brine would preserve the cherries.

Thanks to Wiegand’s discovery, the Oregon maraschino cherries (which were also marinated in syrup and dyed to get their bright red color) became a standard fixture on ice cream sundaes and in Manhattans.

Oregon is now home to two leading maraschino cherry producers – and Wiegand’s method is still the standard used in maraschino cherry production.

BONUS FACT: Some believe that Wiegand’s research was inspired due to Prohibition – as cherries could not be sold in liqueur at that time. But according to Wiegand’s family, that’s a myth!

The Original Maraschino Cherries

If you’re interested in fancy maraschino cherries, check out the Luxardo maraschino cherries from Italy. They are delicious in cocktails and ideal on top of ice cream (says their website).

Have you tried Luxardo cherries? Did you grow up eating maraschino cherries?

I’d love to hear your experiences, as researching this story has only made me more curious about the ‘maraschino cherries’ other people know.

**I’m not going to tell you the other things I learned about maraschino cherries, because I don’t want to ruin them for you. But if you’re curious, here’s an article that may make you less excited to eat them!

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Keep Smiling - and Stay Curious!

-Beth