Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur

Came off really unpleasant to me, I don’t understand how this liqueur is so well regarded. I love mixing tart cherry with my drinks, so I thought this would be a good one to try, maybe something like grenadine. Instead it has a really strong “spit” -like smell to me and just kind of ruined everything I paired with it. Ended up pouring the bottle out

Kept it around for use in cocktails. Too sweet and artificial a taste to drink neat.

Appearance: Water-clear transparency. Aroma: A woody, almost herbal, aroma that is unmistakably cherry but not cloying or particularly fruity. As the official description on this site says, it’s more like a fruit eau-de vie than a liqueur. Flavour and Texture: Thick, sweet and glycerous in texture. The flavour is unmistakably of cherry but like the aroma it is not fruity or candyish, but instead has a woody, nutty quality. You definitely taste cherry pips. This is like a combination of cherry fruit, cherry pips and cherrywood (which is precisely what it is) plus cotton candy. It's very sweet, concentrated and intended for use as an ingredient. Not to the same degree as Angostura bitters is an ingredient rather than a drink, but it’s a bit like that. You can take it neat, preferably chilled, as a digestif but while it is enjoyable that's clearly not its primary purpose (then again, Mrs Cascode just tried a sip from my tasting glass and pronounced it delicious, so why not?). It is an absolutely indispensable part of any cocktail cabinet and you simply cannot make some classic drinks without it, and there is no equivalent substitute. Without it the Last Word, Hemingway Daiquiri or Aviation just don't work. Liqueurs such as this are very hard to rate, as they are virtually unique, but what is unquestioned is the quality. “Excellent” : 88/100 (4.5 stars)