Homemade Spiced Cherry Soda With Cinnamon, 61 Cents

Fresh cherry season ended months ago, and that is exactly why I make this soda in November: frozen dark sweet cherries are picked and frozen ripe, they are in every store this week, and they carry a Thanksgiving table without tasting like summer leftovers. The build follows two syrups I trust: Berly's Kitchen's cherry simple syrup, 16 ounces of frozen cherries simmered 8 to 10 minutes with a cup each of sugar and water, and Hobby Farms' tart-cherry cinnamon soda, which pairs the fruit with a cinnamon stick and serves 3 to 4 tablespoons of syrup to a cup of seltzer. Mine splits the difference: sweet cherries, one cinnamon stick, a little vanilla, and a shorter simmer so the spice stays behind the fruit.

The syrup, step by step

You need 16 ounces of frozen pitted dark sweet cherries, 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of water, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, and half a teaspoon of vanilla. Do not thaw the cherries; Berly's balances the recipe for frozen fruit, and the melt water is part of the liquid.

Put the cherries, sugar, water, lemon juice, and cinnamon in a saucepan over low to medium heat. Bring it to a simmer and stir until the sugar dissolves, then mash the cherries lightly with a spoon and simmer 8 to 10 minutes. Take it off the heat, stir in the vanilla, and let it cool about 15 minutes. Strain through a fine mesh sieve, pressing gently. You get roughly 2 cups of deep red syrup. Refrigerate it in a clean jar and use it within a week, the storage window both source recipes give.

Building the glass

Fill a 12-ounce glass with ice. Add 3 tablespoons of syrup, top with about 9 ounces of chilled sparkling water, and stir once, gently, so you keep the bubbles. Taste before you add more syrup: the first glass should be tart-forward, because you can always sweeten the second. For a holiday pitcher, mix 1 cup of syrup with 6 cups of sparkling water in front of your guests, never earlier; carbonation starts dying the moment it meets syrup and air. If you liked the method in my homemade blueberry soda comparison, this is the same frozen-fruit logic with a warmer spice.

What a batch actually costs

These are my local prices this week, and the arithmetic is the whole point, so here it is in full.

Item	Cost
Frozen dark sweet cherries, 16 oz	$3.49
Sugar, 1 cup	$0.26
Cinnamon stick, 1	$0.40
Lemon juice and vanilla	$0.15
Sparkling water, about 3 liters for 12 glasses	$2.97
Batch total, 12 glasses	$7.27

$7.27 divided by 12 is $0.61 a glass. The same money buys about six canned sodas at my reference price, and not quite two cafe glasses.

Cost per glass: homemade spiced cherry soda against canned and cafe references. Source: Author local prices, November 2026.

Two fixes for the two ways this goes wrong

First, a flat glass. That is warm sparkling water or a long stir, every time; chill everything, build over ice, and stir once. Second, a syrup that tastes like cough medicine. That is over-reduction: if you simmer past 10 minutes or boil hard, the cherry concentrates into something medicinal. Keep it at a bare simmer, pull the cinnamon at straining, and let the vanilla go in off the heat. Readers who enjoyed the gentler steep in my homemade lemon-lime soda already know this rule: heat extracts, time decides how much.

FAQ

Can I use tart cherries instead of sweet? Yes. The Hobby Farms version is built on tart cherries and a cinnamon stick. Keep the sugar at 1 cup for a first batch, taste the strained syrup, and add a tablespoon at a time only if it needs it.

How long does the syrup keep? About a week refrigerated in a sealed jar, which is the window both source recipes give. Freeze the rest in an ice cube tray if you will not finish it; two cubes are roughly one glass worth.

Can I make it with a soda maker instead of bottled sparkling water? Yes. Carbonate plain water as fizzy as your machine allows, chill it well, and build the glasses exactly the same way: ice, 3 tablespoons of syrup, water to the top, one gentle stir.