A Cheerwine Cocktail Recipe on the Skinny

Spiked Cheerwine Over the Rocks

A Drink so Good it's Censored from the Cheerwine Festival

With its distinctive sweet cherry taste, Cheerwine soda has a strong regional following in the Eastern United States. And each Spring, the Cheerwine Festival comes to Salisbury, North Carolina. At the festival, people from all over the region celebrate this unique soda. Although the Cheerwine Festival has a beer garden for their 21+ fans, this spirited highball drink .

Want a Cheerwine Shot or Cheerwine Cocktail?

This just may be the Highball Recipe You're Looking for

Do a Cheerwine shot or Cheerwine Cocktail search in Google and you'll be hard-pressed to find a recipe that actually contains Cheerwine as one of the ingredients. Many of these recipe titles may contain the word Cheerwine, but the ingredients list Coca-Cola listed instead. Huh???

My recipe below actually contains Cheerwine as an ingredient, not Coke. The added Amaretto provides a complementary almond flavor, tempering the sweet cherry soda. For the Vodka, I use the recently released Blue Shark label for that extra bite; it's very smooth with a fine finish.

This drink is what bartenders call a Highball, a mixed alcoholic where the base ingredient is non-alcoholic. Think rum and Coke, or Seven and Seven. Although most highball drinks are served in a Highball Glass, I've elected to use the shorter Old Fashioned Glass. And to keep the calorie count from getting out of hand, I used the diet version of Cheerwine. Enjoy.