Crème de cassis

Sweetened spirits with various flavors

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Farside
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Crème de cassis

Post by Farside »

This is a classic liqueur made from black currants.

Does anyone here make it? Any tips?

I have a bunch of frozen berries and I'm not sure how to proceed.
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contrahead
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Re: Crème de cassis

Post by contrahead »

I am not familiar with either “Crème de cassis” or black currants. But I gather they are similar to gooseberries. Some sources say that they can be used like blueberries. My question is – how tart are they?

If your frozen currents are tart and full of phenols (color) just make a quick infusion with them, with the highest proof neutral you can produce. Add sugar cautiously. But if your berries are tasteless (kind of like my local mulberries are) you might want to add in some citrus acid or bump up the flavor a bit with the juice from another fruit.

You can make a flavored brandy or schnapps the slow way (years) or take a sensible shortcut. The slow way uses cleaned pristine fruit, infused in gin or vodka (about 40% ABV) + about ½ the weight of the fruit, is added in sugar. The fruit, sugar and spirit are put in a glass bottle or jar and set in the dark; where the container is turned ever so gently, daily - for weeks or months – to agitate the sugar without disrupting the fruit. Down the road you end up with a colorful, clear & tasty but very sweet flavored schnapps. The leftover fruit is not so easily disposed of.

I would not do it that way myself. I'd not worry about being delicate with the fruit – because I would intentend to strain and filter everything later anyway. I might even deliberately agitate the infusion every day. I'd make my infusion with the highest strength neutral that I could produce; knowing that the pure ethanol will suck color and flavor out of a fruit, much faster than watered down spirit will. I might amend the acidity and taste profile, to be semingly, very high. Down the road (perhaps after only a year) I'd strain/ filter and cut the liqueur down (perhaps to about 80 proof) before bottling it into more decorative containers.
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NZChris
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Re: Crème de cassis

Post by NZChris »

https://homedistiller.org/wiki/index.php/index.ph ... _de_Cassis

Have a look at the Strawberry Panty Dropper method. I suggest you leave out the lemon juice.
https://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtop ... =14&t=2199
NormandieStill
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Re: Crème de cassis

Post by NormandieStill »

I've been looking at this for a few days. All of the recipes I can find in French call for a strong-bodied red wine in which the berries are macerated (or sometimes, the berries are macerated in a sugar syrup to which the wine is added).

Commercial bottles though, never list wine as an ingredient which makes me wonder why so many people are using it as a base when bottles of neutral are available in supermarkets. The nicest tasting bottles I've bought over the years always list cassis as an ingredient, and do so before sugar so that gives some ideas of ratios, but no real details. I'll keep researching an update this if I find anything more concrete.
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NormandieStill
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Re: Crème de cassis

Post by NormandieStill »

Taken from the label of a bottle (click-and-collect shopping has it's benefits):

Elaborée exclusivement par macération de baies de cassis dans l’alcool et sucrage à froid, elle ne contient aucun ajout. La crème de cassis de Dijon L'Héritier-Guyot répond à une appellation réglementée et doit respecter des contraintes spécifiques : notamment un min. de 400g de sucre/litre et être élaborée sur la commune de Dijon.

Made only by the maceration of blackcurrent berries in alcohol and "cold sugaring", it contains no additives. The creme de cassis de Dijon from L'Héritier-Guyot corresponds to the AOC and must meet specific conditions: notably a minimum of 400g of sugar / litre and be made in the commune of Dijon.

So there's you're minimum sugar dosing, which means you need at least or more than 400g of berries / litre. Given the strength of the flavour I doubt this is proofed down afterwards so I would guess that maceration needs to be at around 40% abv. When I've got a bit more neutral in stock, I'll have a play with this.

Edited to correct a french word which slipped into my translation. Apparently after one strong G+T I start using whichever language I feel like!
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Farside
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Re: Crème de cassis

Post by Farside »

Thanks everyone.

Blackcurrants are not all that pleasant to eat raw because of the strong medicinal / terpene flavors. But when they are cooked their wonderful flavor and deep color comes out.

It appears that raw berries are used in this process which is a surprise.
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Re: Crème de cassis

Post by Farside »

Crème de cassis is dark red in colour and legislation says that the liqueur must have at least 400g of sugar per litre and have a minimum alcoholic content of 15%.

The best brands will include 600g of fruit per litre and you can tell the quality by performing a couple of tests. If you tip the bottle upside down and back again, a good quality crème de cassis should have fruit that clings to the side of the bottle. When you add water to the cassis, it should also retain its rich colour and its smell.
NormandieStill
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Re: Crème de cassis

Post by NormandieStill »

Farside wrote: Sun Jun 06, 2021 1:09 pm Crème de cassis is dark red in colour and legislation says that the liqueur must have at least 400g of sugar per litre and have a minimum alcoholic content of 15%.

The best brands will include 600g of fruit per litre and you can tell the quality by performing a couple of tests. If you tip the bottle upside down and back again, a good quality crème de cassis should have fruit that clings to the side of the bottle. When you add water to the cassis, it should also retain its rich colour and its smell.
Lejay-Lagoute give an overview of their process here:

https://www.lejay-cassis.com/us/maison-lejay/expertise/

No mention of quantity of fruit.
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Single Malt Yinzer
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Re: Crème de cassis

Post by Single Malt Yinzer »

Creme de *** usually means tons of sugar in the spirits world. not that they use actual cream. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cr%C3%A8me_liqueur
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