Turn those juicy, sweet summer cherries into a fun bubbly fermented soda filled with nourishing probiotics!
Cherry season in Michigan is, hands down, my favorite of the summer fruit seasons.
There is nothing like these beautiful, sweet cherries right off the tree. Our area is known nationwide for the cherries – and they just burst with flavor.
There is also nothing like those juicy, sweet cherries putting a smile on the girls’ faces!
This year we froze and ate fresh the majority of the cherries. The frozen ones make for great soaked oatmeal or smoothie add-ins on busy mornings, and stir into yogurt too! I did manage to swipe enough for cherry pie though 😉
And I couldn’t pass up on making cherry almond soda! This is my very favorite of the summer sodas we enjoy on the weekends in the summer.
I hope you can get a chance to make this amazing cherry almond soda this summer!
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Fermented Cherry Almond Soda
Ingredients
- 5 cups pitted cherries
- 1 cup organic pure cane sugar
I get this brand at Costco - 7 cups of water
- 2 TB almond extract
- 1/2 cup whey Just scoop a container of plain whole yogurt into a dishtowel, tie it up onto a cupboard door and let it drip into a jar - the liquid dripped off is probiotic rich whey! The leftover yogurt in the towel is like Greek yogurt or cream cheese - yum! If you are dairy free you can use water kefir grains or a ginger bug.
Instructions
- Put the cherries, sugar, and water in a large pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer about 15-20 minutes.
- Squish the cherries in the pot (I use a potato masher), and pour the cherry sugar water through a fine mesh strainer into a large bowl.
- Add the almond extract and whey to the cherry sugar water in the bowl and stir. Pour the soda mixture into flip top bottles and set in a warm area of your home.
- After a couple days you can open a bottle to check for taste and let the fermented gasses out so it doesn't build up too much. Fermentation can take anywhere from 2 days to a week. Move the bottles to the fridge once they are ready.
For more nourishing drink ideas you can follow my Drinks board on Pintrest!
More real food recipes you might like:
Fermented Lemonade
Mmmm…what a great treat.
Want to make this low carb and cane sugar free. Can I use honey or agave , say 2 tablespoons ? I’m concerned if I don’t use sugar or honey or agave, that bad bugs will populate during the fermentation process
Hi Linda! My understanding is that the probiotic bugs do not feed on honey, maple syrup (have never heard about agave but considering agave is not a health food and not recommended I would suggest not going that route) as well as cane sugar. I, however have never tried it so you could try it with some honey on a smaller batch if you want. The probiotic bugs feed on most of that cane sugar so I wanted to be sure you understood that part – the end product does not have that much sugar. 2 TB of honey will definitely not be enough for the probiotic bugs to feed on to ferment in this recipe.
can I just use 2 tablespoons of honey or agave and then sweeten it with stevia after it is fermented?
Thank you for showing how easy it is to make soda. I ferment often (kombucha, pickles, sauerkraut, kefir) but haven’t tried soda. The kids will *love* this!
Great Gina! Enjoy it!
Okay, I was really excited about making this, but I am new to fermented foods and just read that they could contain enough alcohol (generated by the fermentation process) that could (depending on the time) equal a light beer or wine spritzer. I hadn’t heard about this. What do you know about it? I would post the link where I found the information but I don’t know if that’s allowed. Thanks for your thoughts!
Hi Kat! Great question! If you let it go too long it will but fermenting 2-3 days will not equal a light beer or wine spritzer 🙂 There is a small amount of fermented alcohol from what I understand .5 or less percent. I hope that helps!
How do you think this would be without the almond extract? My youngest is allergic to all tree nuts, but I’d still love to make this!
Could Frozen cherries be used??
Costco sells a bag of organic frozen pitted cherries and I wondered if I could use these or do they need to be fresh for the fermentation?
Thanks in advance 🙂
Yes! I would thaw and drain them first!
I just made a tiny batch of this, about 1/3 recipe. I made it on a whim because I had some cherries that needed to be used immediately, I threw in a couple strawberries too to get the measurement of fruit correct. Also, yes I made changes based on what was on hand.. I strained my whey from honey Greek yogurt… Hopefully that will do the trick. If not, well I learned a lesson. Everything else just as stated above. It is bottled and in the cupboard fermenting now…. I hope it is as good as the mix is , I tasted the spoon when I was done. Now about the cherry mush we strained and the drained yogurt I mixed it all together and ate it for breakfast, it is very good.
That sounds delicious Cytel! I’m not sure how that honey greek yogurt will do, so keep us posted!
Since you’re gonna mash em and strain out the solids anyway is it really necessary to pit them first?
Hi Sandy! I think you could – I am funny about cherry pits because of the cyanide they contain so I just don’t want that cooking in with the cherries.
This looks delicious! Thank you for sharing your recipe for this soda! I definitely want to give this a try as well as try out other flavors! So happy I get to make and drink something with some helpful probiotics!
Thank you Billy!
I made this for my school fermentation project and I’m excited to see how it turns out
I love that! Good for you!
about to try this. Am a fan of your fizzy lemonade, and strawberry sodas. So how much juice is this? I have cherry juice in my freezer.
Hi Marcy! I have never measured it! I’m sorry that isn’t very helpful!
I love this recipe. This year I’ve pitted and juiced three gallons of pure, raw cherry juice. Any idea how I substitute that for the cooked juice, sugar and water mix?
That’s a great question Kate – I’ve never done that before, but it should work. I’m not sure on the ratios of the juice to use though!