Creme de Cassis

Creme de cassis is a sweet dark-red blackcurrant liqueur of Dijon, in Burgundy. The modern recipe was created in 1841 by Auguste-Denis Lagoute, a liqueur producer and owner of the Cafe des Mille Colonnes in Dijon, who developed it over three years. The liqueur displaced an earlier preparation called ratafia de cassis. The blackcurrants used are chiefly the Noir de Bourgogne cultivar; the berries are crushed and macerated in neutral alcohol, then pressed and sweetened to a syrupy consistency. Creme de cassis is most famous as the base of the Kir — the aperitif named after Canon Felix Kir, mayor of Dijon, who popularized the combination of cassis with white Burgundy — and the Kir Royal, made with Champagne.

A small pour of creme de cassis is dark ruby, viscous, and intensely fruity — the concentrated aroma of fresh blackcurrants, with a deep sweetness balanced by the berry's natural tartness. Drunk alone as a digestif it is syrupy and powerful; in a Kir, a splash colors and flavors a glass of dry white wine, turning it into a refreshing, lightly sweet aperitif.

Creme de cassis rests on the cold maceration of blackcurrants in alcohol. Crushed blackcurrants — chiefly the Noir de Bourgogne cultivar — are steeped in neutral alcohol for several weeks, typically six weeks to three months; during this maceration, the alcohol extracts the water-soluble and alcohol-soluble flavor compounds from the berries — the anthocyanin pigments that give the dark red color, the volatile terpenes that give the characteristic aroma, and the sugars and acids of the fruit. The maceration is done cold precisely because heat distillation would destroy the delicate volatile aromas. The macerate is then pressed, decanted, and sweetened with sugar to the syrupy consistency that gives it the name creme. The quality depends on the berry variety, the berry content, and the length of maceration.