Cherry Bounce - Better Cocktails at Home

Take a trip back to early colonial America with Cherry Bounce. Aside from having an awesome name, Cherry Bounce is an old 1700s era drink that George Washington enjoyed and was said to take a filled canteen on his travels. The recipe we followed is from Martha Washington's papers and while it isn't totally complete, we tried to interpret it as best we could.
Here is the original Martha Washington recipe:
Martha Washington’s “Excellent Cherry Bounce”
Extract the juice of 20 pounds well ripend Morrella cherrys. Add to this 10 quarts of old french brandy and sweeten it with White sugar to your taste. To 5 gallons of this mixture add one ounce of spice such as cinnamon, cloves and nutmegs of each an Equal quantity slightly bruis’d and a pint and half of cherry kirnels that have been gently broken in a mortar. After the liquor has fermented let it stand close-stoped for a month or six weeks then bottle it, remembering to put a lump of Loaf Sugar into each bottle.
Better Cocktails at Home interpretation:
2 cups cherry juice
2 cups cognac
1.5oz sugar
1 cinnamon stick
3 cloves
1 piece nutmeg
3 broken cherry pits

[@Foxxy999]

I would've used Rainer cherries, they're probably sour enough to get you there. I really enjoy messing with old recipes like this, a lot of the eighteenth century punch bases and the like are ingenious.

[@BetterCocktails]

That's my next goal. Figure out how to make the recipe easier with more readily available cherries.

[@xxkiskekyxx]

Also if you freeze then juice you might have more success getting better clearer liquid

[@BetterCocktails]

Interesting. How does this impact the clarity of the cherry juice? The cherry juice was super cloudy when we juiced it.

[@xxkiskekyxx]

@@BetterCocktails freezing then thawing breaks the cell walls allowing more juice to flow with less damage to the pulp. Its It's the same principle on why frozen fruit is mushy when its thawed.

[@xxkiskekyxx]

@@BetterCocktails I also use Liquid Chemistry trick and mash the cherries really well then blend a small amount with agar and freeze then thaw in a nut milk bag. Produces crystal clear juice.

[@BetterCocktails]

Ah. I'm going to try that next. I've got some more cherries in the freezer now.

[@BetterCocktails]

That's some intense work for clear juice. Don't know if I have the determination in me.

[@Mongo56]

You start out by saying you're going to use the recipe, but you never say/show what the recipe is. Then, you don't follow the recipe. Huh?

[@xxkiskekyxx]

Sour cherries are horribly seasonal but I think sour cherries are impossible to replicate with any sweet cherry variety but you'll get close if you add some additional malic acid

[@BetterCocktails]

That's a good idea. Sour cherries are tough to find.