German Cuisine - Drinks

Drinks

Beer is very common throughout all parts of Germany, with many local and regional breweries producing a wide variety of superb beers. The pale lager pilsener, a style developed in the mid-19th century, is predominant in most parts of the country today, whereas wheat beer (Weißbier/Weizen) and other types of lager are common, especially in Bavaria. A number of regions have local specialties, many of which, like Weißbier, are more traditionally brewed ales. Among these are Altbier, a dark beer available around Düsseldorf and the lower Rhine, Kölsch, a similar style, but light in color, in the Cologne area, and the low-alcohol Berliner Weiße, a sour beer made in Berlin that is often mixed with raspberry syrup. Since the reunification of 1990, Schwarzbier, which was common in East Germany, but could hardly be found in West Germany, has become increasingly popular in Germany as a whole. Beer may also be mixed with other beverages:

• pils or lager and carbonated lemonade (in Europe and the UK, lemonade is a carbonated drink, in America, lemonade is a noncarbonated drink): Radler, Alsterwasser
• pils or lager and cola: Diesel, Schmutziges or simply Colabier
• Altbier and Malzbier: Krefelder
• Altbier and cola: Altcola or Aco (also called Krefelder in some regions, which might lead to misunderstandings)
• wheat beer and lemonade: Russe
• wheat beer and cola: Colaweizen

Since a beer tax law was changed in 1993, many breweries served this trend of mixing beer with other drinks by selling bottles of already-mixed beverages. Examples are Bibob (from Köstritzer), Veltins V+, Mixery (from Karlsberg), Dimix (from Diebels) and Cab (from Krombacher).

Beer is generally sold in bottles or from draught. Canned beer is available, but cans almost vanished after the introduction of a deposit in 2003.

Wine is also popular throughout the country. German wine comes predominantly from the areas along the upper and middle Rhine and its tributaries. Riesling and Silvaner are among the best-known varieties of white wine, while Spätburgunder and Dornfelder are important German red wines. The sweet German wines sold in English-speaking countries seem mostly to cater to the foreign market, as they are rare in Germany.

Korn, a German spirit made from malt (wheat, rye and/or barley), is consumed predominantly in the middle and northern parts of Germany. Obstler, on the other hand, distilled from apples and pears (Obstler), plums, cherries (Kirschwasser), or mirabelle plums, is preferred in the southern parts. The term Schnaps refers to both kinds of hard liquors.

Coffee is also very common, not only for breakfast, but also accompanying a piece of cake in the afternoon, usually on Sundays or special occasions and birthdays. It is generally filter coffee, which is weaker than espresso. Tea is more common in the northwest. East Frisians traditionally have their tea with cream and rock candy (Kluntje).

Popular soft drinks include Schorle, juice or wine mixed with sparkling mineral water, with Apfelschorle being especially popular in southern Germany, and Spezi, made with cola and an orange-flavored drink such as Fanta. Germans are unique among their neighbors in preferring bottled, carbonated mineral water, either plain (Sprudel) or flavored (usually lemon) to noncarbonated ones.

Drinking water of excellent quality is available everywhere and at any time in Germany. Water provided by the public water industry can be had without hesitation directly from the tap. Usually no chlorine is added. Drinking water is controlled by state authority to ensure it is potable. Regulations are even stricter than those for bottled water (see Trinkwasserverordnung). There is no need at all to buy water in bottles in Germany for health reasons, though the taste of the tap water varies widely depending on the layers of earth and stone dominating on each well.