Ginjinha

Lisbon's beloved sour cherry liqueur served in tiny chocolate cups at iconic ginjinha bars, offering the choice of with or without a cherry at the bottom.

Ginjinha — also written ginja — is Lisbon's most characteristic local drink, a sour cherry liqueur served in tiny ceramic cups or, in a tradition unique to the city, in small edible chocolate cups that are consumed along with the drink. The beverage is made by macerating ginja cherries — a sour cherry variety similar to morello, grown particularly around the town of Óbidos in the Oeste region of Portugal — in aguardente, the Portuguese grape-based brandy, with added sugar and cinnamon. The drink's Lisbon origin is attributed by multiple Portuguese historical sources to a Galician friar named Francisco Espinheira, who reportedly developed the recipe in the 1840s near the Igreja de São Domingos in the Rossio neighborhood. The bar called A Ginjinha, located at Largo de São Domingos 8 just off the Rossio square in Lisbon's Baixa district, claims to be the original establishment and continues to serve the drink using the traditional recipe today. The defining ritual of ginjinha service is the bartender's question: com ou sem? — with or without? — asking whether the customer wants a cherry in their glass. The cherries, which have been soaking in the aguardente and sugar during maceration, absorb the spirit and are considered by many regulars to be the most pleasurable part of the serving. Ginjinha is also produced in the walled medieval town of Óbidos, where it is traditionally served in the edible chocolate cup format, a confection that has become one of the town's main tourist attractions.