Cocktail Bar · Seattle, Washington

Orasella

Seattle cocktail cherries built on an old Italian maraschino recipe and Yakima fruit.

Founded by: Anne Iasella SanGiovanni, Heidi Orde Stender
Based in: Seattle, Washington

Their story

Orasella is the project of two longtime friends, Anne Iasella SanGiovanni and Heidi Orde Stender, who met as freshmen at the University of Notre Dame. Their friendship stretched across two decades before the company took shape on a snowy evening in Seattle.

Heidi had come across a centuries-old Italian recipe for maraschino cherries. The two tried it, liked it immediately and wondered why nobody else was making cherries that way. They put their preserving and large-batch cooking experience to work, and Orasella Foods now makes maraschino, botanical and tiki-style cocktail cherries from Seattle.

How it's made

The first cherries came from an orchard planted by Anne's brother in Yakima, Washington, one of the country's main cherry-growing areas, and the founders also draw on her family's farm there. The fruit is preserved in small batches following the old Italian maraschino method, and the syrup is meant to be used in drinks as well.