Sarah Vaughn once sang in the immortal Porgy and Bess “…summertime and the living is easy. The catfish are jumping and the cotton is high…” and oh how right she was!

Memorial Day is traditionally the start of three and a half glorious months of hot, bright days and long, steamy nights in the Western World. And if you’re like me, every one of these days are filled with one social extravaganza after another. And so the question arises, when you raise your glass to toast the luxe life and your enjoyment of it, what’s in there?

Mojito? No thank you! Caipirihna? So five minutes ago. Martinis? Next! Beer? Not in this lifetime! A true luxe lifer knows that the only two summer drinks that will ever pass through her perfectly lacquered and glossed lips are Kir Royale and Tatanka. In short, the nectar of the Gods!

“O! Kir Royale how do I love thee! Let me count the ways!” Invented in France during the 1800’s and named after its venerable creator and mayor of Dijon, Felix Kir. Monsieur Kir helped to popularize the drink by offering it at receptions to visiting foreign delegations. Besides treating his international guests well, he was also in actuality marketing two vital economic products of the region, crème de cassis liqueur and champagne. Soon the word spread, and though it has taken almost sixty years to reach our shores, it has arrived and has firmly carved out a niche for itself as one the premiere summer drink of choice, not only for this luxe lifer, but for the international jet set as well.

Kir Royale is best described as the sexy, sultry, more exotic cousin of the equally delicious glass of champagne. Consisting of deliciously decadent crème de cassis (a currant liqueur invented especially for Louis XIV) and Brut (dry) champagne which makes Kir Royale at once delectably sweet and tart.

The molecular heavier crème de cassis is poured into the glass first and submerges while the lighter, pale gold champagne is poured on top. This simple step of combining the liquids when making this drink, gives the special effect of having the champagne bubbles rising languidly to the surface as if in some hazy dream giving the crème de cassis the opportunity to permeate its deep ruby red color in frond like tendrils throughout; intoxicatingly beckoning you like Odysseus’ sensuous sirens to sip slowly on its sweet ambrosia. Stay awhile, this is Xanadu.

Kir Royale recipe:

1 part crème de cassis
5 parts Brut Champagne

Pour crème de cassis into a glass and gently pour champagne on top. Chambord can be substituted for cassis.

Oh Tatanka, if loving you is wrong, I don’t want to be right. Long a favorite of Poland and its Baltic neighbors, it has finally made its way stateside thanks to those fabulous Russians who landed on our shores en masse during the early nineties. This is a drink that not many people know about, but once you’ve had it, you’ll keep coming back for more.

The beauty of Tatanka is in its simplicity. Composed of flavors that normally reside on polar extremes of the beverage spectrum, Tatanka will surprise and delight even the most hardnosed cynic. The velvety, grassy accents of the Zubrowska (bison grass) vodka, the innocent sweetness of the apple juice, stand in sharp contrast to the citrusy accents of lemon, but each complement the other beautifully, creating a delicious, decadent ménage a trois of flavors. Sweet and refreshing and absolutely perfect for cooling off on a sultry summer night.

Tatanka recipe:

1 oz Zubrowka^® vodka
4 oz apple juice

Pour Zubrowka vodka over ice in an old-fashioned glass. Add apple juice and a lemon wedge, and serve.

1 part crème de cassis
5 parts Brut Champagne

Pour crème de cassis into a glass and gently pour champagne on top. Chambord can be substituted for cassis.