California Kir Royale Pomegranate Cocktail

Festive Kir Royale Cocktail using California sparkling wine! This pomegranate sparkling wine cocktail is bubbly and beautiful and the perfect way to toast the holidays. With fresh pomegranate, pomegranate liqueur, and sparkling wine it’s an effortless three-ingredient cocktail!

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What the holidays will look like this year is yet to be determined.

For certain, it will be a season like no other, but I think it’s important to still recognize all we have to be grateful for.

It’s easy to focus on the laundry list of struggles we’ve had in 2020 and count up all our problems but most of us truly have so much to celebrate.

I’ve created this gorgeous sparkling cocktail in partnership with California Grown and California Wines so you can raise a glass for all things big and small this holiday season.

This is just one of several recipes Aida Mollenkamp and I will be making on October 8 for our Virtual Cocktail Party cooking class.

If you haven’t reserved your spot, now is the time, we only have a few spaces left! Click here to join!

the best wine for a kir royale cocktail

I’m calling this a California Kir Royale because a classic Kir Royale cocktail is made with champagne and crème de cassis.

With this festive drink we are using California sparkling wine instead of the champagne and pomegranate liqueur in place of the crème de cassis.

Then to put the final finishing California touch: fresh pomegranate, grown right here in California!

As for what type of sparkling wine to use, you want to pick out a dry sparkling wine, which will be labeled, “brut”.

Most California sparkling wines are brut, so it won’t be hard to find but if the bottle is labeled “demi-sec”, that means it’s sweet and not great for this cocktail.

what’s the difference between a kir and a kir royale?

Like a French 75 (which is gin, champagne, lemon juice, and simple syrup) and the Champagne Cocktail, the Kir Royale is one of the great, classic, French champagne cocktail recipes made with champagne or sparkling wine.

A traditional Kir, on the other hand, is made with white wine instead of champagne.

A splash of crème de cassis is added to chilled wine for a refreshing, casual cocktail.

The Kir Royale, made with chilled champagne is reserved for special occasions.

fun pomegranate facts!

• Pomegranates deserve their superfruit title – the juice of just one pomegranate has 40% of your daily Vitamin C, so you can feel really good about drinking it in this cocktail!
• Pomegranates contain higher levels of antioxidants than most other fruits.
• They also have three times more antioxidants than red wine and green tea.
• In addition to Vitamin C and antioxidants, pomegranates provide Vitamin E, folate, potassium, and vitamin K.
• The Golden State grows virtually 100% of the U.S. pomegranate crop, mostly in Central and Southern California.

getting the maximum pomegranate punch in your cocktail

First, the easiest way to remove the ruby red kernels in pomegranates (which are actually called arils, not “seeds”) is by cutting it in half horizontally, then cutting it into wedges and gently picking them out.

I know people have tried to convince you to tip the halves upside down and bang them out with a wooden spoon or do it under water or many other “hacks”.

I’ve never had much success with those methods.

It’s a bit tedious to pick them out, but I’m usually able to get several at a time by rubbing my thumb along a ridge of arils and they all fall out at once.

Pick out any white pith that falls out along the way.

You can also buy just the arils instead of the whole fruit.

As for the pomegranate liqueur, there are a couple of brands to choose from but they both have a delicious sweet-tart balance and beautiful garnet color.

If you can’t find pomegranate liqueur you can substitute pomegranate juice or even pomegranate molasses.

more easy holiday cocktails to try

• Strawberry Prosecco Punch
• Elderflower Champagne Cocktail
• Tamarind Rum Punch
• Pomegranate Paloma
• Ponche de Navidad {Mexican Mulled Fruit Punch}
• The Chimayo Cocktail
• Mezcal-Ginger Punch
• Cranberry Margarita

celebrate something!

This holiday season stir up this California Kir Royale and celebrate everything you’re grateful for—even if that’s 2020 coming to an end! If you try this sparkling wine cocktail, I’d love to hear about it. Share a photo and tag me on Instagram @holajalapeno and #holajalapeno so I can see or leave me a comment below!

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In support of this small business, ¡Hola! Jalapeño earns revenue in a few different ways. Several sponsored posts are published each month, like this one which is sponsored by California Grown and California Wine. I also earn an affiliate commission on the sales of products I link to— there are a few of those links in this post. I only feature items I genuinely love and personally use on a regular basis. This commission is an arrangement between the retailer and ¡Hola! Jalapeño (readers never pay more for products). This income allows me to run the site. Thank you for reading!