What is crème de cassis?

Crème de cassis is made from blackcurrants; under Regulation (EU) 2019/787, the legal name may only be used for liqueur of that fruit.

Category 34 of that regulation covers all liqueurs called crème de, followed by the name of a fruit or other raw material. For the blackcurrant version, a separate requirement on sugar content applies on top of that. A blackcurrant liqueur that does not meet it may be called a liqueur but not crème de cassis.

Crème de cassis must contain more than 400 grams of sweetener per litre, calculated as invert sugar.

That is four times the minimum for ordinary liqueur and well over one and a half times that for the other crème de liqueurs. In a glass of 5 centilitres that comes to more than 20 grams of sugar. The regulation sets no upper limit, so a bottle may contain more than the minimum.

The minimum alcohol content of crème de cassis is 15 percent volume, the same lower limit as for liqueur in general.

Regulation (EU) 2019/787 imposes no higher minimum for category 34 than for category 33. In the Cassis de Dijon judgment of 1979, the Court of Justice assumed a French crème de cassis with 15 to 20 percent alcohol. The actual content of a bottle is always stated on the label.

Other crème de liqueurs need to contain 250 grams of sweetener per litre, whereas crème de cassis must come in above 400 grams.

Both fall under category 34 of Regulation (EU) 2019/787 and both have 15 percent alcohol as their lower limit. The difference lies solely in the sweetening and the raw material. A crème de mûre, crème de pêche or crème de menthe therefore follows the rule of 250 grams per litre; only the blackcurrant version has the higher requirement.

The Cassis de Dijon ruling of 20 February 1979 concerns a German rule that kept fruit liqueurs with less than 25 percent alcohol off the market.

In case 120/78, Rewe-Zentral AG and the Bundesmonopolverwaltung für Branntwein faced each other. The French crème de cassis contained 15 to 20 percent alcohol and therefore did not meet the German requirement. The Court of Justice ruled that such a national minimum requirement amounts to a measure having equivalent effect to a quantitative restriction on imports. Since then that principle has carried the name of this liqueur.

Crème de cassis is mixed with white or sparkling wine as an aperitif and used in cocktails as a sweet, dark fruit base.

Because of the sugar content of more than 400 grams per litre, a small splash is enough to colour and sweeten a glass of wine. The liqueur is also used in the kitchen, for example with red fruit. Those who do not want to serve alcohol stick to blackcurrant syrup; the Alcoholwet prohibits supplying alcoholic drink to anyone under 18.