Maraschino Liqueur Cocktails

Maraschino liqueur is clear, dry and distilled from whole Marasca cherries including the pits, which is where its faint nuttiness comes from. It shares a name with the sweet red syrup that cocktail cherries sit in and has nothing else in common with it.

It is powerful and it wants a light hand. Fifteen millilitres will flavour a whole drink and thirty will take one over, which is why the classics that use it, the Last Word and the Aviation and the Martinez, keep it in a supporting measure.

Nothing else tastes like it, so there is no substitute worth recommending. If a recipe calls for it and you do not have it, make a different drink.