blackcurrant liqueur

Crème de cassis is a blackcurrant liqueur produced in France containing 15% to 20% alcohol by volume.

Crème de cassis is a blackcurrant liqueur containing at least 400 grams of sugar per litre expressed as invert sugar.

Fruit: Merlet Creme de Cassis, Blackcurrant Liqueur (France)

Also used in alcoholic beverages, blackcurrant liqueur mixed with white wine is called Kir or Kir Royale when mixed with champagne.

Baked rhubarb, sometimes tarted up with orange, a splash of cassis (strange but true) or our British blackcurrant liqueur, is a good thing to stir into your breakfast porridge.

Apparently first concocted by a mayor of the Burgundy city of Dijon, Canon Kir, it consists of white wine (usually the local Aligote) and blackcurrant liqueur.

I could happily have strung up a hammock between two of these trees, sipped the local blackcurrant liqueur and idly batted those leafy ears back and forwards, and still be there now.

Meanwhile, all you could possibly need to know about the key ingredient of the aperitif kir – the blackcurrant liqueur crème de cassis – is revealed at the blackcurrant museum (www.cassissium.com) in Nuits-Saint-Georges in Burgundy.

Add a dash of Sainsbury's quintessence of cassis-like Taste the Difference Blackcurrant Liqueur, £8.99, 20cl, either to that or your favourite cheap cava, and there you have your very own grown-up Kir Royale.

The city is also well known for its crème de cassis, or blackcurrant liqueur, used in the drink known as "Kir", named after former mayor of Dijon canon Félix Kir, a mixture of crème de cassis with white wine, traditionally Bourgogne aligoté.

One of the city's attractions is the shopping center around the Place Darcy and Rue de la Liberté, where you can hunt for such regional delicacies as the famous mustards; pain d'épices (gingerbread); and cassis, the blackcurrant liqueur that turns an ordinary white wine into a deliciously refreshing kir.