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Making your own cherry infused vodka is easy and a great way to ensure that you get the most pure, fresh fruit taste possible in your liquor. No artificial sweeteners, artificial flavors, or artificial colors. Just tangy notes of cherry - full of natural flavor.
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This vodka recipe contains no sugar. I don't like how much sugar is in the store-bought flavored vodkas and prefer to add sugar to my cocktails when I'm making them.
Using simple syrups to sweeten your drinks - instead of the liquor itself - is also a great way to add more flavor to the drink. (Try mixing homemade cherry vodka with honey simple syrup and a squeeze of lime! So good!)
Cherries are a summer fruit with a short season here in Michigan, so this recipe can also be easily made with frozen cherries from the grocery store.
That also means you can make homemade cherry-flavored vodka as a Christmas gift without having to worry about cherry season being long over.
What's in Homemade Cherry Vodka
- Sweet Cherries (fresh or frozen) - Fresh cherries will need to be pitted and stems removed. Don't want to do that work? Choose frozen cherries.
- Plain Vodka - Choose something you'd enjoy drinking plain, but it doesn't need to be the most expensive brand on the market.
How to Make Cherry Infused Vodka
Place cherries in a pint mason jar.
Add enough vodka to fill the jar - about 12 ounces.
Place a lid tightly on the jar and gently tip it back and forth to mix the cherries and vodka together.
Set the jar in a cool, dark place for 3 days.
Remove the lid and strain out the cherries.
Store your cherry vodka in a glass container at room temperature for up to 6 weeks or in the refrigerator for up to 3 months.
Enjoy!
Try One of These Homemade Liquor Infusions
Homemade liquor infusions are fun and easy to do! Two of my favorite are blueberry vodka in the summer and apple cinnamon gin in the fall. Looking for more options? Head over to my Liquor Infusions page for lots of other ideas!
What to Make with Cherry Infused Vodka
- Make my 3 ingredient Cherry Vodka Sour cocktail!
- Add 1 or 2 ounces cherry infused vodka to your favorite lemonade.
- Add 2 ounces cherry vodka into a chocolate milkshake for a boozy treat!
- Mix with Coca-Cola for a spiked Cherry Coke.
- Make a boozy cherry limeade with 2 oz cherry infused vodka, 1 oz fresh lime juice, 2 oz simple syrup, and 2 oz club soda. (Pictured below.)
Recipe Tips
- If you use fresh cherries, be sure to grab a cherry pitter and pit the cherries - and remove the stems - before placing them in your jar with the vodka. Do not infuse cherries that have pits in them.
- For frozen cherries, check the label to make sure they don’t have any added sugar in them.
- Infuse and store your finished cherry vodka in a pint mason jar or glass bottle to prevent any flavors getting imparted into the vodka from a plastic container.
- Don’t want to spend money on glass bottles? Save your old liquor bottles when they’re empty and reuse them for infusions. Paper labels will soak off easily in a bath of hot water and dish soap.
Try These Cherry Recipes
Need something to do with those extra cherries? Make my sweet cherry simple syrup, then stir up some cherry lime mocktails. Both are delicious way to enjoy cherry season!
FAQs and Substitutions
No. I tested this recipe with both frozen cherries straight from the freezer and frozen cherries that had been thawed. After 3 days there was no difference in taste or color.
Nope! The vodka acts as a natural preservative, so you can leave your vodka sitting in a cupboard to infuse.
Absolutely! However, they won’t be sweet. To make sweet boozy cherries, make a small amount of simple syrup (½ cup sugar dissolved into ½ cup hot water), then add your vodka-soaked cherries to that mixture once you strain them from the vodka. Store the boozy cherries/simple syrup mixture in the refrigerator and use over vanilla ice cream or to garnish cocktails. 
You can, though my recommendation is to use whatever brand you would normally drink. I used Tito's Vodka in all of my testing and the final version of this recipe because that’s what I usually keep on hand for plain vodka drinks.
I like sweet, dark cherries or bing cherries for this infusion. They impart great cherry flavor and a natural sweetness. If you prefer tart drinks, tart cherries are an option as well.
While you can use dried cherries in this recipe, they take longer and impart less flavor than fresh cherries or frozen cherries.
No, but leaving them in will reduce the vodka’s shelf life. If you decide to leave the cherries in the vodka, I recommend storing your cherry vodka in the refrigerator at all times.
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Easy Homemade Cherry Vodka
Ingredients
- 12-15 pitted sweet cherries fresh or frozen
- 12 oz plain vodka
Instructions
- Place the cherries in a pint mason jar.
- Add enough vodka to fill the jar - about 12 ounces.
- Place a lid tightly on the jar and gently tip it back and forth to mix the cherries and vodka together.
- Set the jar in a cool, dry place for 3 days.
- Remove the lid and strain out the cherries.
- Store your cherry vodka in a glass container at room temperature for up to 6 weeks or in the refrigerator for up to 3 months.
- Enjoy!
Shawna says
Have you ever did lime and cherries infused at the same time? Would you use just the zest of the lime? I am new to this but miss cherry limeades from childhood and was wondering if you can do both at the same time. Thanks
Katy McAvoy says
I haven't done this combo, but it would definitely be worth trying! Use only the peel from the lime and add it with the cherries. Taste the infusion every 24 hours as it sits. Citrus peel can start to go bitter if it infuses for too long, so look for that and pull the peels out if you notice it start to happening.
Otherwise you can make a boozy cherry limeade using the recipe I have in this post under "What to Make with Cherry Infused Vodka." 🙂