Cherry Bounce 🍒

A Presidential Drink

In honor of Presidents’ Day and National Cherry Month, I’m delighted to look at a fun component of Theodore Roosevelt’s life this month: cherries and cocktails. TR wasn’t a big alcohol drinker—and once sued someone for claiming he was.

But when he did drink, his favorite cocktail was a mint julep, which he often drank with rye whiskey and brandy instead of bourbon, according to Mark Will-Weber’s book, Mint Juleps with Teddy Roosevelt.

Source: Mary Daisy Arnold. U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection. Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library. Wikimedia Commons.

Since TR’s passion for mint juleps has been covered elsewhere, I wanted to look at another drink he enjoyed: cherry bounce. Interestingly, this brandy-based cordial is more associated with another president, George Washington.

Martha Washington wrote down a recipe for it in her diary, and George was known for carrying it in his canteen. Even James K. Polk, our eleventh president, drank cherry bounce at least once during his life!

Cherry bounce was also known more widely in the United States to people who weren’t presidents. From the time of the Washingtons, cherry bounce played an important part in New Year’s celebrations.

As one contribution to the Knickerbocker Magazine in the late 1880s notes, this beverage was particularly essential in New Year’s celebrations in Dutch families—to which Roosevelt belonged.

“In this house, the primitive Dutch holidays of Paas [Easter] and Pinxter [Pentecost] are faithfully kept up; and New-Year celebrated with cookies and cherry-bounce.”

Source: William Henry Prestele. U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection. Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library. Wikimedia Commons.

The Roosevelts maintained this Dutch tradition of holding an open house on New Year’s Day at Sagamore Hill, their home in Oyster Bay, New York. They always welcomed many friends and family, and there’s a good chance that keeping with the Dutch custom, cherry bounce was served.

We know for sure that TR drank cherry bounce to celebrate the Republican victory in 1900 and becoming the nation’s vice president elect. As Kathleen Dalton writes in Theodore Roosevelt: A Strenuous Life, “On election night Edith and Theodore celebrated the Republican victory by drinking Miss Paulding’s cherry bounce with the children.”

Miss Paulding’s cherry bounce could have been a non-alcoholic cherry cordial since TR gave some to his children. However, he liked brandy, so it’s also possible this cherry bounce was the real deal.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Even if the cherry bounce TR drank in November 1900 wasn’t alcoholic, the cherry bounce Martha Waller Johnson sent to the president in March 1905 likely was. As TR responded to her in a letter, “I feel quite bacchanalian with that cherry bounce, and I am delighted with it as well as the beautiful decanter in which it has come.” In my humble opinion, the phrase “feeling bacchanalian” doesn’t describe how one would feel after drinking a mocktail!

Source: Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Martha Waller Johnson. Theodore Roosevelt Papers. Library of Congress Manuscript Division. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.

Whether or not TR’s cherry bounce was alcoholic, it’s still fun to discover the connection several presidents had to this drink. In honor of Presidents’ Day, you could always try making this presidential favorite, following the modern version of George Washington’s recipe for making cherry bounce. Or if you don’t drink, you could always try a non-alcoholic version of cherry cordial.

“The Roosevelt Room is named after Teddy Roosevelt because he was a well-liked president. Many people have a positive connection to Teddy. He’s a character in which we were able to take things like his involvement in secret societies and craft events around that. . . . The cocktail menu revolves around Roosevelt. Every cocktail has a reason or a story behind it. . . . For example, the Big Stick has bourbon, bitters, and a smoked wood chip, which is a nod to Roosevelt’s ‘big stick’ policy.”

Saijal Andreadis Ryan, Marketing Director, Four Entertainment Group, LLC (parent company of The Roosevelt Room)

Or if you want to try other Roosevelt-inspired drinks (and you’re local to Ohio), visit The Roosevelt Room, which has two locations in Liberty Township, Ohio, and Dublin, Ohio. All of the drinks on their menu relate to TR in some way, including The Roosevelt, their take on a mint julep. To celebrate Presidents’ Day on February 19 this year, all house cocktails will be $2.00 off—a perfect time to try a Roosevelt-inspired drink if you’re an Ohioan. 🇺🇸🥂

Source: Illustration by Deborah Griscom Passmore. U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection. Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library. Wikimedia Commons.

Cherries are just one of the fruits TR enjoyed. You may remember his love for peaches from an earlier Missing Pieces issue. Although he wasn’t quite as passionate about cherries as he was peaches, TR still enjoyed them.

In a 1905 letter to his son Kermit, he talks about eating “cherries and wild strawberries” with fried chicken, biscuits, and cornbread on a Saturday evening. How do you prefer to eat cherries? Do you like them fresh like TR, or would you rather eat them in a delicious dessert—or in cherry bounce? Cast your vote in the poll below.