It amazes us when people go to the trouble of preparing perfect cocktails using top-shelf booze only to drop in one of those petrified neon-red poison sacs at the end. You could do away with them altogether, but some drinks—like the Manhattan—require the cherry as a crowning touch. The solution? Seek out real, all-natural marasca cherries from northern Italy. The best are bottled by Luxardo (pictured), the company that first started furnishing them to royalty nearly two centuries ago. The small supply imported into this country dried up a couple years back, but a new pipeline recently opened and Luxardo is now being stocked at Dean & DeLuca. They're preserved in pure marasca cherry syrup, not the sulfur dioxide and high-fructose corn slurry you find in supermarket substitutes. Both your cocktails and your small intestine will emerge unscathed.
$16, available at Dean & DeLuca, 560 Broadway, NY, NY, (212) 226-6800