Cherries for Ice Cream
Cherries for ice cream are similar to a maraschino cherry. Ice cream cherries are a preserved sweetened cherry, typically made from light colored sweet cherries such as the Royal Ann, Rainer or Gold varieties. Our cherries are harvested at the peak of freshness, and stored in a brine solution to preserve the fruit. The fruit is washed, pitted, sorted, and soaked in a colored sugar syrup until the desired color and flavor is obtained. Traditionally, these are cherry halves and/or diced cherries, but this process can be done with whole cherries as well.
We specialize in making these items as an ingredient for Ice Cream Manufacturers. They can also be used as a desert topping application.
All ice cream cherries are available in Black and Red colors. The red cherries for Ice Cream can also be referred to as Maraschino cherries for packaging and marketing purposes.
We produce ice cream cherries in a few different ways:
- Dri-Pak – As a Dri-Pak, the cherries are removed from the syrup that they are processed in and mixed with a stabilized syrup. This gives you an even mixture of cherries and a gel-like syrup.
- Solid-Pak – As a Solid-Pak, the cherries are removed from the processing syrup and have the proper amount of syrup added back to them in the pail. The Solid-Pak process produces a thinner syrup than the Dri-pak.
- Straight Pack – With the Straight Pack process, the cherries are removed from the processing syrup and packed directly in a pail.
Leelanau Fruit also produces some specialty packs:
- NSA – No Sugar Added products are available for all the above packs..
- Natural Coloring – All Ice Cream Cherries can be produces without artificial food dyes.
- Natural Flavoring – All Ice Cream Cherries can be flavored with Natural Ingredients.
All of these items are packed in 5 gallon round pails and weigh 45 – 50 lbs each. We also have the ability to pack a vacuum sealed bag in a box