Sour Cherry vs Sweet Cherry: Taste, Uses & Nutrition
Short answer: Sweet cherries (Prunus avium) are large, firm and sweet enough to eat by the handful. Sour cherries (Prunus cerasus) are smaller, softer and sharply acidic, so they are mostly cooked into pies, jams, juices and liqueurs. Per 100 g raw, USDA lists sour cherries at 50 kcal and 8.5 g sugar against 63 kcal and 12.8 g sugar for sweet cherries.
| 🍒 Sour cherry | 🍒 Cherry | |
|---|---|---|
| Taste | Bright, sharp and juicy, with real acidity behind the cherry flavour; dark Morello types are deeper and wine-like, while light-red Amarelle types such as Montmorency are brisker. Cooking with a little sugar turns the sourness into the classic cherry-pie flavour. | Sweet cherries are juicy, snappy, and winey-sweet (Rainiers add a honeyed, low-acid delicacy); sour cherries are bright, almond-scented, and made for sugar and heat rather than raw eating. |
| Type | Stone fruit | Stone fruit |
| Peak season | Summer | Summer, Spring |
| Origin | Europe, North Africa and West Asia — probably a natural hybrid of the sweet cherry and the ground cherry (Prunus fruticosa) | Black Sea and Caspian region (Anatolia to the Caucasus) |
| Calories (per 100 g) | 50 | 63 |
| Sugar (per 100 g) | 8.49 g | 12.8 g |
| Vitamin C (per 100 g) | 10 mg | 7 mg |
| Fiber (per 100 g) | 1.6 g | 2.1 g |
| Potassium (per 100 g) | 173 mg | 222 mg |
| Typical price | Mid | Premium |
They share a name, a genus and a season, but sour and sweet cherries are different species built for different jobs.
Sweet cherries (Prunus avium) are the ones sold by the bag for snacking: big, firm, glossy and sweet — Bing, Rainier and their cousins. Sour cherries (Prunus cerasus) grow on a smaller tree and give softer, juicier, sharply acidic fruit. Eaten raw most are bracing; cooked with sugar they become the cherry of pies, jams, Turkish vişne suyu juice and Belgian kriek beer.
Sour cherries split into dark Morellos, with red juice and a deep, wine-like flavour, and light-red Amarelles like Montmorency, America’s main tart cherry. Sweet cherries are bred for size and sugar instead.
Nutritionally they are close, but sour cherries are lighter: USDA’s raw values are 50 kcal and 8.5 g sugar per 100 g for red sour cherries against 63 kcal and 12.8 g for sweet. The rule of thumb is simple — bake with sour, snack on sweet.
Frequently asked questions
Can you eat sour cherries raw?
Yes — they are not harmful, just very tart. Fully ripe dark Morello cherries are pleasant to people who like sharp fruit, but most sour cherries are cooked with sugar.
Can I use sweet cherries instead of sour cherries in a pie?
You can, but the pie will be sweeter and flatter in flavour. Cut back the sugar and add a squeeze of lemon juice to get closer to the tang of a sour-cherry pie.
Is Montmorency a sour cherry?
Yes. Montmorency is a light-red Amarelle-type sour cherry and the most common sour cherry grown in the United States, widely used for tart cherry juice and dried cherries.
Which has more sugar, sour or sweet cherries?
Sweet cherries. USDA data put raw sweet cherries at about 12.8 g of sugar per 100 g and raw red sour cherries at about 8.5 g.