POPPING BOTTLES

Thanks to ‘Emily in Paris,’ the Kir Royale Will Be 2023’s Hottest Drink

The Kir Royale is champagne, but it’s a little fruitier. Simple, easy, and delicious!

Apologies to the Negroni Sbagliato (with Prosecco in it), but 2023 already has a go-to drink of choice: the Kir Royale, aka the glitzy mix of bubbles and fruity liquor spotlighted in Season 3 of Emily in Paris.

Our favorite expat Emily (Lily Collins) encounters the drink while enjoying a meal outside in Paris. Her coworkers all order the Kir Royale, but Emily is confused—why not sip champagne on this gorgeous day while out celebrating with friends? (They’re celebrating Emily getting fired, by the way. Weird thing to celebrate, but any excuse for a Kir Royale is good enough for me.)

That’s when Luc (Bruno Gouery) and Julien (Samuel Arnold) explain what it’s all about: The Kir Royale is champagne, but it’s a little fruitier. It’s simple champagne with a little crème de cassis, a liqueur from Burgundy (a historical region in east-central France) that’s made out of blackcurrants. Simple, easy, delicious!

Of course, Emily wastes no time spinning the drink into a full-blown marketing campaign with her largest account, Champere, the (fictional) brand of cheap champagne owned by her bestie Camille’s (Camille Razat) family. Last season, Emily attempted to sell Champere by spraying bottles of it in photo opps, a perfect way to get rid of the not-so-great-tasting drink. But in this new season, Emily implements a new tactic: creating canned Kir Royale cocktails with Champere’s signature fizz.

Sadly, Champere’s canned cocktails aren’t real (at least, not yet), and neither is Champere—but the Kir Royale certainly is! So is the similarly concocted Kir, which is made of crème de cassis and dry white wine, and the Kir Imperial, which features sparkling wine and raspberry liqueur.

The Kir dates back to 19th-century France, and was popularized after World War II. Both drinks are rumored to be named after Catholic priest Felix Kir, who helped thousands of war prisoners escape Nazi camps in Burgundy in 1940. When Nazis stole red wine from Burgundy, Kir tried to make a new red wine with pink liqueur and white wine, hence the Kir and the Kir Royale.

The White Lotus has Aperol flying off the shelves for fans’ homemade spritzes (at least, we would think so; I grabbed a bottle immediately after Season 2 aired), and we predict crème de cassis will be the next hot liquor. Making the Kir Royale cocktail is super simple: pour a couple teaspoons of crème de cassis in a flute and top with champagne. Add frozen raspberries if you’re feeling like a French noble. It’s a wonderful berry-centric holiday refreshment, but also fruity enough for summer.

Emily in Paris fans have already flocked to the Kir Royale, with plenty of memes harkening back to the Negroni Sbagliato trend and photos of them trying the drink.

The Kir Royale, Luc touts on the show, is “the perfect drink to sip and do nothing while the Ferris Wheel turns.” What a great New Year’s resolution: Sip wine and do nothing! We’ll be sipping Kir Royales into 2023, thanks to our girl Emily.

Fletcher PetersEntertainment Reporter

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