It’s summer. It’s cherry season. What’s your favorite eating cherry?
This year in Eastern Washington the Bing, and surprisingly the Van, cherries have been sweeter than the Raniers. Past years (at least the 6 previous years I’ve been here) the Raniers would have won.
Voted other: Chocolate covered.
all depends on what is available, and if I go to a store, a farm stand or a self pick place.
I pretty much just really like cherries any way I can get them. If all I can get is sour cooking cherries, Ill bake a pie =)
The perfect Bing is the perfect cherry, but I find them distressingly variable in quality ( a mushy Bing is crap ). Rainiers are much more consistent in quality IME, so I voted for them.
I agree with this. I generally go for Raniers but I’ve had some great Bings.
Couldn’t agree more… on all counts. I love it when the skin is taut, and actually crackles when you bite into it. It shouldn’t be overly sweet, though… just a touch of acidity.
I bought some Rainiers last week: they tasted great, albeit a little too sweet. It felt as if I was eating candy!
Big fat black cherries! NOM! Though for a pie, sour cherries are the only way to go. I see them at the farmers market, fragile and almost transparent, they have to be used right away.
Really interesting article on the Rainiers:
http://www.seattlepi.com/default/article/Rainier-cherries-are-the-peak-of-the-crop-1057980.php
The cherry with the best flavor (and the best name): Black Republicans. Historically, BRs are one of the parent varietals that led to Bings, but I find the flavor of BRs to be much more intense - if regrettably more variable.
All of them. I buy whatever I can get for as long as they’re available.
I adore cherries.
Wow… out of two dozen cherry species and cultivars commonly eaten, the poll lists only three of them? I don’t even recognize those three. Is “Queen Anne” supposed to be the same thing as “Royal Anne”, or is it some kind of cherry I’m not familiar with?
I voted “Other” because sour cherries are my favourite.
Where are you from? I was just listing the cherries that are most commonly available in grocery stores in the Pacific Northwest. What cherries do you most often see for sale in the stores where you live?
I’m currently in continental Europe. Here most languages make a distinction between sweet cherries and sour cherries, which are separate species, each of which has dozens of cultivars. The most common sour cherries here are known in German as Schattenmorellen, though there are many others. The sweet cherries you buy commercially don’t always have the variety listed, though common ones include Burlat and Kordia.
Early Richmond, a type of sour cherries. They are next to impossible to find fresh in the store because they go bad so quickly.
Normally Rainiers are better, but they are always more expensive. This year was an unusually good Bing crop, so I’ve just been eating Bings.
This thread inspired me to pick up some Skeena cherries today. Mostly firm, kinda dense flesh as per the linked description, nicely sweet, very clingy pit. I think I prefer the brightness of Bings - these are more mild.
Still, quite good.
To be honest I have no idea what kind of cherries I prefer. I just stop by one of the roadside stands on my way home from traverse city and ask the little old lady which are the best right then.
It’s the heart of cherry season so I’m resurrecting this thread/poll.
I came in to post the above and found out I already had two years ago. Totally forgot.
I had some very nice Rainiers a couple of hours ago. Yum.