Cherry Firecracker Cocktail (4th of July)

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Let’s make it an extra festive 4th of July celebration with this shimmery Cherry Firecracker cocktail! Made with freshly muddled cherries, a cinnamon simple syrup and ginger beer topping for a firecracker kick, this patriotic cocktail is sure to be a summer party favorite.

A Cherry Firecracker cocktail on patriotic fabric with cherries and flowers around it.

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Why You Need to Make This Recipe
Ingredients
Step-by-Step Instructions
Recipe FAQs
Expert Tips
Perfect Pairing
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Why You Need to Make This Recipe

Is it even the 4th of July without a head-turning signature cocktail? Not in my world. You need this patriotic cherry cocktail at your celebration.

Sets a festive mood. That color! Those firecracker sparkles! This 4th of July cocktail is full of patriotic vibes that will add a fun touch to your backyard party. Talk about an Instagrammable drink.
Make the most of summer cherry season. Thanks to freshly muddled cherries, every sip is loaded with real fruit flavor, making it the perfect summer cocktail.
As refreshing as it gets. With the crisp rum, bright citrus and bubbly finish, this cocktail is the perfect sipper for a hot day on the patio.

Related: For more cherry cocktails, try my cherry vodka sour, cherry bourbon smash and cherry Kentucky mule.

Ingredients

Now a couple ingredient notes. For this cocktail, I went with light rum rather than dark rum. Light rum brings a nice brightness to the drink to balance the cinnamon simple syrup, which I thought would be nice on a hot 4th of July day.

That said, I bet dark rum would also be delicious, so if you happen to use dark rum, please let me know how it turns out! A common practice in tiki drinks is to use equal parts light and dark rum, so that’s another option.

This ingredient list also calls for Luxardo cherry liqueur instead of simple cherry liqueur. During the distilling process, Luxardo cherry liqueur includes the leaves, pits, stems and even skins of marasca cherries. All these elements gives the liqueur almond notes, which I find delicious and I bet you will too.

And then there’s the cinnamon simple syrup. This is a mixture of water, sugar and cinnamon, and I’ll walk you through how to make it. While you can buy cinnamon simple syrup, it’s so easy to make that I prefer to make my own, and that way, I can control what goes into the mixture.

Oh, and we can’t forget those firecracker shimmers. I picked up this 100 percent edible glitter from Sugar Mama Shimmer. This line comes in a variety of pretty colors and adds no taste or texture — just beautiful sparkles!

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Let's begin with our cinnamon simple syrup. To make this spiced sweetener, we bring water, sugar and several cinnamon sticks to a boil in a small saucepan (photo 1). Once it boils, we let it continue to boil for a couple minutes, and then we turn the heat off and let it steep.

Bringing the cinnamon simple syrup to a boil in a small saucepan.

I recommend letting the syrup steep for at least a few hours, but it's even better if you let it steep overnight. Although this does take a little planning, it makes for easy entertaining since you don't have to worry about it the day of your party when you're already busy.

Step 2: With our syrup prepared, we can start on our cocktail. We grab a handful of cherries and add them to a cocktail shaker with our cinnamon simple syrup (photo 2) and muddle until they break down like so (photo 3).

Muddling the cherries in a cocktail shaker until they break down.

Step 3: Now we add in our rum, Luxardo cherry liqueur, lime juice, edible glitter and a handful of ice (photo 4). We put on the cocktail shaker top and give it a good shake (photo 5). Once our drink is nice and chilled, we strain it into ice-filled cocktail glasses and top with ginger beer (photo 6).

Showing the process of adding the ingredients to the cocktail shaker and then topping with ginger beer to make the drink.

All that's left is to toast to the holiday, sip and enjoy.

A close-up shot of the firecracker cocktail with a plate of cherries in the background.

For more summer cocktails that are perfect for your patriotic party, make sure you also try my Dirty Shirley cocktail, cherry margarita and tequila lemonade!

Recipe FAQs

How do I pit cherries?

I highly recommend using a cherry pitter tool. It's quick, easy and creates less mess.

However, if you don't have a cherry pitter tool, you can use a chopstick to push out the pit from the cherry. Or you can simply cut the cherry in half and remove the pit.

Does it matter if I use sweet or tart cherries?

I used sweet cherries, but feel free to substitute tart cherries if you prefer. It really comes down to personal preference and what's available in your store. Both will produce delicious results.

Are fresh cherries in stores now?

If you’re making this cherry cocktail for the 4th of July, the answer is yes! Fresh cherries are available May through September, though they become scarce in that final month. If you stumble upon this recipe another time of year or for some reason can’t find fresh cherries, you can substitute frozen cherries — just let them thaw before muddling.

Expert Tips

Want to make this Cherry Firecracker cocktail pitcher style? Check the notes section of the recipe card. I included proportions and directions.
If you don’t have a muddler, you can use a larger wooden spoon. That said, with cherries, I do find an actual muddler is a bit easier to break down the fruit.
When picking limes, make sure you get the ones that aren’t hard. We want a little give when we gently squeeze the lime to ensure they’re nice and juicy.
Before juicing the lime, I like to firmly roll it on the countertop a few times to get the juice flowing.
A little bit goes a long way with the glitter. But if you want to show off this pretty drink on Instagram, you might want to add a touch more to make sure the camera catches the sparkles.

Perfect Pairing

We need an equally festive drink to go along with our 4th of July cocktail, and I happen to have two recipes that are perfect: blueberry-strawberry shortcakes and 4th of July poke cake. Not only are these red, white and blue desserts but they also feature plenty of fresh berries that pair wonderfully with our cherries.

For a fun patriotic cocktail, I hope you try this Cherry Firecracker cocktail. It's sure to put a fun spin on your 4th of July celebration.

Cheers!

Looking down at the cocktail with cherries and flowers to the side.

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