Add very strong alcohol just so it barely covers all of the fruit.-I used double distilled vodka (alcohol content probably about 55-65%).-Beware though- Apparently operating a still is VERY illegal ;-)

Let the covered jar sit for about a week and a half (it's covered sothe alcohol doesn't evaporate). Note that no fermentation takes placehere- all that happens is that the fruit soaks up the alcohol, andreleases some of its juices. Depending on the type of fruit the levelof fluid may decrease. Once you've decided that the fruit has soakedin much of the alcohol gently pour off the fluid so as not to blemishthe fruit (try one now for a taste experience :-). Call this (verystrong) fluid rack #1.

During the following steps you probably should avoid blemishing thefruit if at all possible.

Replace the fruit in the jar, but layer it with sugar. How much sugaris a bit difficult to say here. I usually tried to do my best to coveralmost all of the fruit with _some_ sugar. Cover the jar again. Whathappens now is that the sugar makes the fruit give off its alcohol andshrivel slightly. In a couple of days the level of juice in the jarshould reach almost the top of the fruit. This means it is time to pourit off again, call this rack #2.

Now we repeat the layering with sugar step (getting rack#3, rack#4,etc) until only a very small amount of juice is released. I have beentold that with cherries this can be kept up until only a tiny littlebit of cherry skin is surrounding the pit. Each rack is sweeter and sweeter.

With rasp[black]berries I got to rack #4 and then got bored waiting for really small amounts of juice. So I took the berries, threw them into acloth and twisted the hell out them to release the vestiges of alcoholand juice. This was rack#5. The left over pulp can be used withice-cream. Note that this step is entirely optional, four racks wereplenty enough (but why waste alcohol :-).

Now comes the fun part.Invite several friends (I used 5) and mix the different racks invarious proportions and get some feedback on how they taste (too sweet,too alcoholic, too dry, etc). Don't use too many friends or else youwon't have any left after the tasting. Now you should know whatproportions to mix the final product in. Disposing of juice _not_ usedin the final mix is left as an exercise to the reader (I had some sweetstuff left over and use it on ice cream).