Type Cherry Liqueur | Producer Girolamo Luxardo | Region Italy > Padua | ABV 32% | Volume 500 ml | Price (AUD) ~$50
House notes
Luxardo Maraschino is a stealth bottle. Made from marasca cherries, pit, stem, and flesh, distilled clear, and aged in Finnish ash wood that doesn’t tint it. The resulting liqueur smells like cherry and almond and vanilla all at once and tastes like nothing else in the cabinet. A few millilitres in a Daiquiri (making it a Hemingway), in a Last Word, or in an Aviation transforms the drink. Too much and it goes medicinal. This is the kind of bottle that convinces your guests you know what you are doing, and you only need one 500 ml bottle for a year of cocktails.
What it pairs with
Hemingway Daiquiri, Last Word, Aviation, Martinez, Improved Whisky Cocktail, Casino, and a teaspoon in a Champagne cocktail if you are showing off. Food: dark stone-fruit desserts, amaretti biscuits, ricotta cannoli, anything with almond marzipan or kirsch already in the recipe. Also extremely good poured over vanilla ice cream with a Luxardo cherry on top for a grown-up sundae.
About the producer
Girolamo Luxardo has been distilling maraschino cherries near Padua, Italy, since 1821. The cherries for both the liqueur and the famous jarred cherries are grown on Luxardo’s own orchards in the Veneto. Same family, same recipe, nine generations.