Cherries Emoji

Two red cherries joined by their stems. That paired design is central to what 🍒 means: two things connected. On Snapchat, it signals "in a relationship" because two cherries = a couple. In slang, "cherry" has meant virginity since the early 1900s, and "popping the cherry" is still widely used. On TikTok and dating apps, 🍒 can reference breasts, making it a milder member of the fruit innuendo family alongside 🍑 and 🍆.

But 🍒 also has completely innocent lives: the fruit, slot machine luck (cherries were one of the original fruit machine symbols in the early 1900s), and the "cherry on top" idiom for a perfect finishing touch.

Approved in Unicode 6.0 (2010) as U+1F352U+1F352 CHERRIES.

🍒 is one of the more versatile fruit emojis.

Snapchat: in a relationship. Part of the fruit emoji relationship code that emerged around 2016. 🍒 = taken/in a relationship. The two cherries on one stem = a couple. It was designed to "confuse boys" according to accounts of its origin.

Suggestive use. 🍒 can reference breasts due to the paired round shape. Less explicit than 🍑 (butt) or 🍆 (phallic), but the connotation exists, especially on dating apps and in flirty DMs. It's also connected to virginity through the "cherry" slang.

Aesthetic and cute. The cherry aesthetic is huge on TikTok and Instagram. Red cherry patterns on clothing, cherry-themed bios, and the general "cherry girl" trend. 🍒 signals sweetness, vintage vibes, and playfulness.

Slot machines. Cherries were one of the first fruit symbols on slot machines when early 1900s gambling restrictions forced manufacturers to dispense fruit-flavored gum instead of cash. Three cherries in a row = jackpot.

The cherry on top. The idiom for a perfect final addition. "Got the raise AND a bonus? Cherry on top 🍒"

The cherry's cultural history runs deeper than most people realize.

In Christian art, cherries symbolized the purity of the Virgin Mary. "The Cherry-Tree Carol," a Christmas ballad sung since the 15th century, tells of the pregnant Mary asking Joseph to pick cherries. In Ancient Rome, the cherry was associated with Venus, goddess of love and fertility.

Shakespeare used the cherry metaphor in Romeo and Juliet, comparing virginity to an untouched cherry on a tree. By the early 1900s, "cherry" as slang for virginity had entered mainstream language, and "popping the cherry" became one of English's most persistent sexual idioms.

The slot machine connection dates to the early 1900s. When US cities banned cash-paying slot machines, the Industry Novelty Company created machines that dispensed fruit-flavored gum instead. The reels displayed fruit symbols matching the gum flavors: cherries, lemons, watermelons. Lining up cherries meant you won cherry gum. When gambling returned, the fruit symbols stayed. Cherries became the lowest-value but most common winning combination, making them the slot machine symbol everyone recognizes.

• 🌿
  2,500 square feet of indoor grow: Hidden behind a hydraulic-floor entrance under the cherry-processing line. 125 grow lights illuminating five-foot plants. Investigators recovered roughly 80 pounds of dried marijuana plus several hundred plants in process.
• 🚗
  Porsche, Rolls-Royce, Harley-Davidson: All three were parked behind the same hidden entrance. The compartment had its own ventilation and a private elevator from the executive office. The DA's office described the setup as "essentially a concealed parallel building" inside an active food factory.
• 💵
  $8.5M estate, hundreds of thousands in cash on-site: [Hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash](https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20150824/red-hook/da-eyes-85m-estate-of-maraschino-mogul-who-killed-himself-after-pot-bust/) were recovered from the property. The Brooklyn DA later moved to seize ~$8.5M of the family estate; portions were eventually returned after extended litigation.
• 🏭
  The cherry line never stopped: Dell's continued operating after the raid. Mondella's daughters re-organised the company and the factory still ships maraschino cherries today. The bright-red jar in the supermarket aisle is the same one.
• 🎬
  The Sopranos cameo: Dell's appeared in the Sopranos season 5 episode "Sentimental Education" (2004) when Tony Soprano stops by a Red Hook factory in a story arc about waterfront mob business. Eleven years before the real raid; the placement aged into prophecy.

1. 1400The Cherry-Tree Carol, a Christmas ballad about Mary and Joseph, is first sung. Cherries symbolize the Virgin Mary's purity in Christian art.
2. 1900Fruit symbols (including cherries) appear on slot machines when US gambling restrictions force manufacturers to dispense fruit gum instead of cash.↗
3. 2010Approved in Unicode 6.0 as U+1F352 CHERRIES. The paired design (two cherries, one stem) is consistent across all platforms.
4. 2016The Snapchat fruit emoji game emerges around Christmas. 🍒 is assigned 'in a relationship' status, confusing non-participants.↗
5. 2019Harry Styles releases 'Cherry' on *Fine Line*. Its TikTok revival three years later locks in the emoji's modern romantic-longing meaning.
6. 2024The 'cherry girl' aesthetic trends on Pinterest and Instagram, part of the color-coded aesthetic cycle (after coquette, tomato girl, blueberry milk).

• •The two-cherry-on-one-stem design is why 🍒 means "in a relationship" on Snapchat. Two connected cherries = a couple. The code emerged around Christmas 2016 and was designed to "confuse boys."
• •Cherries were one of the first fruit symbols on slot machines in the early 1900s. When US cities banned cash-paying machines, manufacturers switched to dispensing fruit-flavored gum. Cherry gum was the prize for lining up cherries.
• •In Christian art, cherries represent the purity of the Virgin Mary. The Cherry-Tree Carol, a Christmas ballad from the 1400s, features Mary and Joseph in a cherry orchard.
• •The Ancient Romans associated cherries with Venus, goddess of love and fertility. The cherry's red color and sweet flavor made it a natural symbol of desire.
• •Shakespeare compared virginity to an untouched cherry in Romeo and Juliet. By the early 1900s, "cherry" as slang for virginity had entered mainstream English.
• •The "cherry on top" idiom comes from the practice of placing a maraschino cherry atop an ice cream sundae as the finishing touch. It now means any perfect final addition.
• •On TikTok, the "cherry girl" aesthetic features red patterns, vintage vibes, and playful sweetness. 🍒 in a bio signals this aesthetic identity.
• •In China, cherries symbolize good luck, love, and feminine beauty. The cherry blossom (related but distinct) is Japan's most revered natural symbol.
• •Maraschino cherries, the neon-red cocktail garnish, got their name from marasca sour cherries in Croatia. The bright-red US version with almond extract was a 1920s Prohibition-era reinvention that stripped the original alcohol infusion and dyed them electric red.
• •Turkey is the world's largest sweet cherry producer, growing about 25% of global output. The US is second, led by Washington and Michigan. The annual Traverse City, Michigan cherry festival draws around 500,000 visitors.
• •The "Washington's cherry tree" story ("I cannot tell a lie") was invented by biographer Parson Weems in 1806, seven years after Washington's death. It's pure fiction but one of the most durable American folk tales.
• •Cherry pits contain amygdalin, which breaks down into hydrogen cyanide when chewed. A handful of crushed pits can be dangerous, which is why every cherry pitter exists, and why old-school cookbooks warn against pit-in cherry preserves.
• •Bing cherries, the dark-red grocery standard, were named after Ah Bing, a Chinese-American orchard foreman in 1870s Oregon who cultivated the variety. He was later barred from returning to the US under the Chinese Exclusion Act.
• •Rainier cherries (yellow-and-red) sell for 2-3x the price of Bing cherries at US grocery stores because they bruise easily and have a short harvest window. They were developed at Washington State University in 1952 by crossing two existing varieties.

• •"Cherry Pie" (Warrant, 1990): One of the most on-the-nose uses of cherry innuendo in rock history. The song's red-soaked music video made "cherry pie" permanent euphemistic infrastructure.
• •"Cherry" (Harry Styles, 2019): The Fine Line track widely read as being about Camille Rowe. The TikTok revival made 🍒 a motif for emotional longing, not just flirtation.
• •Lana Del Rey's entire discography: "Cherry," "Young and Beautiful," and a dozen lyrics that reference cherries as symbols of lost innocence. Lana is probably responsible for 25% of the cherry-aesthetic Tumblr era single-handedly.
• •Twin Peaks / the cherry pie scene: "Damn fine cherry pie" is one of David Lynch's most quoted lines. Cherry pie is the show's running visual motif and a reason cherries still read as vintage Americana.
• •George Washington's cherry tree: The probably-apocryphal "I cannot tell a lie" story about young Washington chopping down a cherry tree was invented by biographer Parson Weems in 1806, but it became foundational American folklore.
• •Maraschino cherries: The neon-red cocktail garnish was originally Croatian (marasca sour cherries), but 1920s US Prohibition reinvented them with almond extract and food dye. They became the sundae-topping cherry everyone pictures.