Prunus cerasus
Sour cherries are smaller, softer, and much more acidic than familiar supermarket sweet cherries. They are a separate species, not simply sweet cherries picked before ripening.
Sour cherry trees are naturally smaller and generally more winter-hardy than sweet cherry trees. Maine growers still contend with tender flower buds and spring freezes, but cultivars such as North Star, Meteor, Mesabi, and Evans can reach into Zone 4 conditions.1
Many sour cherries are self-fertile, so one tree can set fruit on its own. Many sweet-cherry cultivars are self-incompatible and need compatible pollen from another cultivar—an important biological difference hidden behind two similar fruits.2
Montmorency became the dominant North American sour-cherry cultivar as commercial orchard production specialized in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.3
Sweet and sour cherries differ most fundamentally in how much sugar they can accumulate; sour cherries are not simply harvested earlier.4 Much of cherry aroma comes from almond-like benzaldehyde, floral linalool, and clove-like eugenol. Heating strengthens the almond and floral notes, especially when pits remain present.4
Footnotes
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University of Maine Cooperative Extension, “Types of Fruit Trees,” accessed July 17, 2026. ↩
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University of Maine Cooperative Extension, “What Are Some Best Practices When Planting a Cherry Tree?,” 2023. ↩
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National Park Service, “Orchard History: Orchard Specialization and Industrialization, 1881–1945,” 2022. ↩
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Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, rev. ed. (Scribner, 2004), PDF p. 373. ↩ ↩2