With my recent cocktail and spirits obsession comes the drive to make my own condiments for drinks. The idea to make maraschino cherries was planted in my head after reading this post last year but I just recently got around to it.

These are incredibly easy to make, once the cherries are pitted. I use an Oxo cherry pitter to make the job easy. My version isn’t as pretty as Jennie’s – probably because I used pale pink Brooks cherries. But they’re so good (I think I like them better than Bing cherries).

There’s not much more to the recipe than cooking the cherries for a short time in a cherry syrup mixture. I didn’t even can mine properly – they’ll keep in the refrigerator in a jar for a short time for a month.

I used a bit of the juice from the cherries, homemade grenadine (also incredibly easy to make) and a splash of soda water to make a fancy Shirley Temple. Add some of your favorite spirit for a grown-up drink (I think rum would work well). And the cherries are even better eaten straight out of the jar.

• Homemade Maraschino Cherries (In Jennie’s Kitchen)