A jewel-red summer cordial made by simmering sour cherries (albaloo) with sugar and a little lemon into a glossy ruby syrup, then diluting it with iced water to taste. Roughly one part syrup to three parts water gives a drink that is sharply tart, deeply sweet, and intensely cherry-scented. Whole cooked cherries are often spooned in, and a tall spoon is offered so each drinker can stir it to their own balance.
Albaloo, the Morello-type sour cherry, is a defining fruit of the Iranian table, ripening in early summer across the orchards of the northwest and the Alborz foothills and turning up in everything from albaloo polo to this beloved sharbat. Bottling the fleeting crop as syrup preserves it for the whole year, a thrift typical of the broad Persian sharbat tradition of fragrant fruit and flower cordials kept on hand for guests and hot afternoons.
A bracing slap of sourness arrives first, then a wave of dark cherry sweetness rolls over it, the two locked in the tense balance that defines a good albaloo. The color alone is electric, a deep translucent ruby. Ice-cold and faintly puckering, it is far more grown-up and refreshing than any candy-sweet cherry soda.
Simmering the cherries with sugar draws their juice out by osmosis and dissolves it into a saturated syrup that resists spoiling; the fruit's own malic acid keeps the boil from crystallizing and sets the tart edge, while a squeeze of lemon both brightens the flavor and, by inverting some sugar, guards against graininess. Long boiling concentrates color and aroma into a thick keeping syrup that needs only water to become a drink.
Variations
Made with or without the whole cherries left in; sometimes finished with rose water or a hint of cardamom; diluted weaker or stronger by taste; the same syrup is poured over shaved ice or vanilla ice cream as a dessert.
On the Palate
Where Sharbat-e Albaloo sits in the Persian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 8How it's made
6 steps · 15 min
- 18 min
Pit the sour cherries, reserving any juice that escapes.
- 23 min
Combine the cherries, their juice, and the sugar in a heavy pot and let sit a few minutes to begin drawing out liquid.
- 325 min
Bring to a gentle boil, then simmer, skimming foam, until the cherries soften and the liquid turns syrupy, about 25 minutes.
Watch outSimmer and skim until the liquid turns visibly syrupy and coats the back of a spoon — about twenty-five minutes; that's the concentration that lets it keep.
- 42 min
Stir in the lemon juice in the last few minutes of cooking.
Watch outStir the lemon in only in the last few minutes — added early the long boil cooks off its brightness, and its acid is what keeps the syrup from going grainy.
- 55 min
Strain off a clear syrup, or leave some cherries in, and cool completely; bottle and refrigerate.
- 61 min
To serve, pour syrup into a glass, top with iced water to taste, add ice, and stir.
Archive tool suggestions — not reviewed
These legacy suggestions have not been evidence-reviewed and are not presented as required tools.
