Your guide to British cherry season

Plump and luscious, our King Cherries are some of the juiciest and sweetest cherries around – and also the biggest on the high street. Our King Cherries measure a minimum of 32mm, which is over 20% bigger than our standard cherries. Keep an eye out for these rich and juicy seasonal stars in your local Foodhall and learn more about British cherry season.

Cherries are stone fruits of the Prunus genus, closely related to plums, nectarines, peaches and apricots. While there are over a thousand types of cherries grown around the world, these varieties can be divided into two groups – sweet cherries (Prunus avium) and sour cherries (Prunus cerasus). Sweet cherries are low in acidity and commonly eaten on their own, while sour cherries are high in acidity and better for cooking, freezing and canning.

Take a look at some of our favourite types of cherries:

• Sweetheart – available in late summer, very dark red, sweet flavour.

• Kordia – medium-to-large sweet cherry with the darkest colour.

• Lapins – large, juicy cherry with a mild, sweet flavour.

• Penny – large, black, firm cherry available in late summer.

• Stella – sweet, late-summer cherry with dark red colour.

• Grace Star – early to mid-season variety, known for its dark red flesh, firmness and sweetness.

• Tamara – mid-red colour, sweet and juicy with a firm flesh.

• Folfer – a dark, firm cherry, mid-sweet flavour.

• Regina – sweet, aromatic flavour, deep red in colour with firm, juicy flesh.

• Santina – known for its very dark colour, with a mild sweet flavour.

• Carmen – early variety, mid-red colour and well-balanced flavour.

• Hertford – early to mid-season variety, dark-skinned with sweet flavour.

• Karina – later season variety, firm texture with sweet flavour.

• Staccato – later season variety, firm texture and sweet flavour.

• Zoe – well-balanced flavour with dark skin and ruby-red flesh.

• Kir Rosso – perhaps the latest cherry variety in the UK calendar, the fruit is firm with juicy flesh, having a tangy, aromatic flavour with fine acidity.