December 3, 2015 Advent with SusieJ

Kir royale

Marsha Wirtel, Hot Water Bath

• 1/3 oz Crème de cassis
• 3 oz Champagne or sparking wine, chilled

Pour the Crème de cassis into a flute. Pour the champagne/sparking wine over. If you're feeling fancy, throw tradition to the wind and sugar the rims of the glasses (having moistened them by running a sliced lemon around).

Are Kir Royales a James Bond thing? I can't remember, but somehow in my past they've become conflated with the notion of menacing elegance. Surely, the Kir Royale is the official cocktail of the Truly Glamorous? Whatever the origin story, I'm a devotee. Pretty in the glass but not too sweet, they cannot be beat for a delicious aperitif (although the Kir Royale lacks the bitterness and medicinal aspects one sometimes finds in aperitifs, for which I'm grateful).

I may never be a James Bond heroine, but I can pretend with a Kir Royale to claim at once ladylike and alluring qualities I don't truly posses. With a sugared rim on my glass, I can even do it a seasonally festive way.