Crème de cassis

Key facts

Descendant of the ratafias, blackcurrant liqueur had no difficulty making it onto the tables in France. Quite the contrary. Created in 1841, it quickly became very popular in cafés. In fact, it was a café waiter who invented the famous "blanc-cass'" later adopted by the deputy mayor of Dijon, one Félix... Kir, who would popularize it under his own name. Since then, two P.G.I.s have been created, in 2013 and 2015, for Crème de Cassis de Dijon and Crème de Cassis de Bourgogne, respectively. The two liqueurs have a very similar manufacturing process. Both include the cold maceration of berries in alcohol before transferring and adding sugar to create a liqueur of at least 15% alcohol. To get into more detail, Crème de Cassis de Bourgogne differs from Crème de Cassis de Dijon due to its larger designation area, a shorter maceration period (3 weeks) and a higher minimum sugar content (450g/l) as well as fruit content (250g/l). From this point of view, the Noir de Bourgogne blackcurrant variety is favored by liqueur makers and their customers. The more customers there are, the more the product is sought after...