Rainier
Prunus avium 'Rainier' · Stone fruit
Top 10 pairings
Rainier is the showpiece bicolour sweet cherry — golden-yellow skinned with a bright rosy-red blush over its sun-facing cheek, and pale cream-coloured flesh inside. It is remarkably sweet and low in acid, with a delicate, almost honeyed flavour, and is eaten fresh as a premium dessert cherry rather than cooked or preserved.
Picking a good onedrag
Picked palePast it
Full colourBuy itIt's firm enough to keep a week in the fridge, sweet enough to eat by the handful.
ColourFull red, bright and glossy
StemGreen, pliable, firmly attached
FleshFirm and springy, heavy for size
SmellClean, faintly sweet up close
These cues are Cherry's, and hold across its varieties; where this one differs, its own page says so.
What you get from one
92%
Edible part
8.2 g · pit and stem out
9 g
Weight each
each one
Keeping ittap a temperature
A domestic fridge holds it about 5× longer than the counter.
95%+
Humidity
Still air, keep it bagged
Airflow