At this point ive read lots and lots of articles on bush cherries. Some websites say that various bush cherries are sweet with low enough acidity that theyre great for fresh eating and then another website says the very same variety is much too sour for fresh eating. Is there a consensus out there as to which bush cherries truly have a high sugar/relatively low acid content for fresh eating?
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We had a discussion about this somewhere, so a search will probably turn it up somewhere. Last year was my first year to get several of the Romance cherries, and I was really disappointed that none of them was even close to being good for fresh eating- just way, way to sour. Most people agreed, but not all. I was disappointed because, just like you, I had read some places that they were fairly good for fresh eating, but I disagree now!!! So donât get your hopes up. I find Montmorency Sour Cherries to be somewhat suitable for fresh eating if they are dead ripe, so its not that Iâm just totally opposed to sour cherries. But the Romance series Iâve tried have all been way, way more sour than Monte! All that being said, the Bush Cherries are incredibly productive and make good preserves so Iâm keeping mine.
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i donât have much experiance either way.
I assume with bush cherries you mean Prunus cerasus - Wikipedia ?
In the EU we call those sour cherries. Opposed to sweet cherries P. Avium.
I am however looking for the german varietie spinell
states itâs fruit weight 9.1g size 26.5mm 17.6% brix. 12.7 gram/liter malic acid.
Comes reasonable close to burlat (from the same paper) 8.9g 26.3mm 16.6 brix and 8.2 g/l malic acid.
Size weight brix etc are reasonable similair. Still a 1/3th difference in acid.
I think it also depends a lot on growing cirumstances. So it might not be a fair comparision or work out this way every year.
It is however comparing a sour cherry to a sweet cherry. So quite impressive.
This document lists similair attributes for spinell.
https://www.julius-kuehn.de/ex_anwendung/downloadFatPdf.php?file=2013_0098.pdf
It however does not list sweet cherryâs. So is harder to compare from.
This paper from 2017 (more recent) Also lists spinell as the sweetest/lowest acid sour cherry tested.
if you canât read the papers. Read the scientific part of this topic.
Spinel also apeared to be quite monila resistant.
i also came across this presentation.
https://www.bordeaux.inra.fr/cherry/docs/dossiers/Activities/Meetings/2014%2009%2015-17%20WG1%20Meeting_Novi%20Sad/Presentations/Schuster_Novi-Sad2014.pdf
Have not had time to search for the papers that that presentation is based upon. (i assume they exsist from the same german institute)
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Iâm hoping to get my first real taste of them this year too. And like you Iâm hoping they are somewhat enjoyable eating fresh. I enjoy tart candies so maybe Iâll be more inclined to eat them fresh. I donât really like things that are super sweet with no acidity to balance them out.
Either way, if I can use them to make cherry pie Iâll be happy.
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@Rawnutphobic
Are you in the US? Bush cherries in this forum often refer to the Canadianâs Romance series, Crimson Passion, Romeo, Juliet, Cupid, Valentine (the last two are not available in the US yet), plus Carmine Jewel.
They are sour but several growers here enjoy eating them out of hand. I tried Carmine Jewel and Juliet last year. They were too sour to me. I will dry them and use them in cooking esp. making desserts. They are supposed to be high in antioxidant.
Taste is subjective. Those who like tartness in fruit probably will like eating them fresh.
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@mamuang was kind enough to share some of her Carmine Jewel and Juliet cherries, and I thought they were excellent for fresh eating. However, it should be noted that I enjoy eating plain fresh cranberries⊠The cherries are definitely sour.
@Rawnutphobic I think the answer depends on how much tartness you like/tolerate in your fruit.
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If you enjoy sour things, which I and my kids do, youâll probably enjoy eating them. But they are nothing close to a sweet cherry and I definitely wouldnât call them low acid. So âgood enough for fresh eatingâ just depends on what you like. But I think most people would find them too sour.
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do you mean me? or speedster?
im in the EU (itâs on my profile and mention in my climate zone thingy)
I think speedster is in the US.
https://research-groups.usask.ca/fruit/Fruit%20crops/sour-cherries.php
Are these the cherryâs your talking about?
They seem intresting. Curious if i can find those in the EU. We also have loads of sour cherryâs. And in germany an institute that specificaly breeds them.
They seem to be hybrids of sour cherries and P. fruiticosa. Mostly sour cherrie though.
http://www.agriculture.gov.sk.ca/apps/adf/ADFAdminReport/20090405.pdf
page 16 shows acidity.
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I meant the OP. The OP only lists zone 5. No location.
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Same goes in my family. I have found Carmine Jewel to be very similar in taste and tartness as Montmorency. My sons and I eat them straight off the bushes/trees. But we do like really tart things. Like @jcguarneri, I like fresh cranberries! Lemons and limes tooâŠ
If you expect them to taste like Bing, you will be disappointed. But these sour cherries make THE BEST cherry pies, imo.
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OP, I think you are hung on the âcherryâ part of the name. They are different fruits.
I always think this is like asking âare there any lemons suitable for fresh eating?â and feeling sad because even though they are a citrus they are not like oranges. Nobody would think lemons are inedible but they will quickly complaint about sour cherries not being what they are not.
Having said that we find dead ripe Romeo and Juliet to be sweet/sour and pleasant enough to raid the bush while we work around. Montmorency and Evans are a bit too much to swallow. Crimson passion is supposed to be sweeter but the bush is more finnicky, slow to grow, produces less.
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Thanks for that input. I think I was probably too harsh on the Romance Cherries based on my own subjective taste preferences. To me they were just basically inedible, but Iâve heard a lot of people here say they like them, Perhaps if Iâd been more prepared with my expectations it would have helped. But from what Iâd read, I had the impression that they were somewhere between sour cherries like Montmorency and sweet cherries like Bing. That certainly wasnât the caseâŠthey were considerable more sour than my Montmorency cherries, which even I can enjoy out of hand in small quantities.
Anyway, taste is subjective and Iâm glad you and others here told the OP that they can be eaten fresh by some people so my own dislike of them doesnât stand as the final word.
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From the ones I tried, Carmine Jewell was about on par with Montmorency, and Juliet was sort of halfway between that and a sweet cherry. Iâve heard they need to hang a fair bit after they turn red for best flavor. If I just wanted one for pies, jams, etc, I would go with CJ. Juliet was very good all around and had a nice depth of flavor. I detected a hint of almond in the finish, if I recall correctly. Sweet enough for me to enjoy. bit with enough sourness to stand up to baking and jams without the flavor getting lost. I liked it enough that I planted a Juliet bush this spring.
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Hi Oscar,
I am from germany and do grow carmine jewel. My plant is young and I wasnât able to taste the fruit though it already started to fruit the 2nd year in ground. Carmine Jewel is available in germany. I also grow Jade and Achat. Achat has sweeter fruit but is quite susceptible to shothole disease.
I did a quick search for Spinell but wasnât able to spot a source.
If you are interested I can try to root green cuttings. That proofed to work ok with Gisela 5. It might work with sour cherries as well. Of cause there also is the boring option of sending scions 
.
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Kevin,
I donât think you are too harsh about your assessment of the bush cherryâs taste. It is very sour to us. My husband and my friend said they were too sour too their liking as well.
I let some of my Juliet on the tree very long until they were deep red and shriveled. They were still too sour for me. Thatâs my taste and I stand by it 
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Jay,
If Juliet set well this year, I will let you know when they are ripe. Come on down. Bring your wife and your daughter.
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from what i could find
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10942910903277697
Montmorency has roughly 13.7 ±1.3 % brix. and 1.13 ±0.1% titratable acid.(% malic acid)
page 16
http://www.agriculture.gov.sk.ca/apps/adf/ADFAdminReport/20090405.pdf
Shows Carmine Jewell to have roughly 16% brix and 1.4% acidity (im assuming % malic acid)
Both roughly 12 times more sugar than acid.
Do you notice the difference? do you notice Carmine Jewell being sweeter but also having more acid? Or does the balance taste roughly the same as Montmorency for you?
Im curious if you have tasted cupid and crimson passion, those should be closer to 15-16 times more sugar than acid.
Im also curious if youâd taste a large difference between cupid and crimson passion. Crimson passion has higher acid. but an unusually high brix (21%) so their sugar to acid ratio is quite similair.
Spinel seems to have roughly 14 times more sugar than acid. (17.6% and 1.28%)
And burlat (18.3% and 1.01%) with roughly 18 times sugar vs acid. Is not that far off. (especialy from crimson passion and cupid)
What impresses me especialy is that spinel (sour cherry) is the same size and weight (slightly larger even) as burlat in the mentioned paper. Thats quite extreme. (26+ mm and 9+gram)
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Hello Carot 
awesome, thanks for checking it out 
Im working on the framework for my frankentreeâs ufo style cherryâs. One of them will be exclusivly sour cherries.
Are your treeâs own rooted? or grafted? I have colt (stronger rootstock) or gisella 6 planned for my sour cherry tree.
Jade with itâs sugar to acid ratio of roughly 9 would probably be a little sour. Achat around 10 seems sweeter. Nice to hear the data from the paperâs matches your taste in reality. If only ever tasted unnamed sour cherries. Canât wait to taste multiple varieties if grown myself. Unfortunatly im gonna have to wait a few years XD
Iâd love to trade or buy some scions next dormant season. If got mainly apples to trade but also few other things. But weâll work it out around end of summer/ fall
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Glad you said that! I remember well that you and I both had our first substantial harvest of bush cherries last year and both were quite disappointed by the degree of sourness. And I donât think your tastes are as devoted to sugary fruits as mine are, so your reaction says more about the degree of sourness than mine does.
@jcguarneri you clearly have a more sophisticated pallet than me! All I tasted was mind blowing sourness! ha. And I certainly found my Romeo and Juliet to be far more sour than my Monte. Also, just like Tippy, I absolutely let some of mine hang on for a very, very long time after turning red. They got a little less sour, but not much. But who knowsâŠwe all have different tastes. And just so you know, in spite of my disappointment with the lack of sweetness, this winter I actually dug up 8 Romance Cherry suckers and planted them in an area where I needed a âhedgerowâ. Thatâs because I still like making things with Bush Cherries AND I am also blown away by the amazing production levels. I get more fruit from my 7 foot bush than I do from my 15 foot montmorency tree. Those Bush cherries are just fun to look at when they are fully loaded.
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Hi Oscar,
Achat I grafted to a seedling sour cherry. Jade and Carmine Jewel I bought on their own roots. We will work out sth I am sure. Lets stay in touch.
BR
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