Guest Author - Holly Fox

Who thought a country so famous for their beer and even for their wine could condone adding water or soda to them? But the Germans are crazy about mixing their drinks: beer with lemon-lime soda, thinned out soy milk, apple juice, red wine, white wine or just about anything with oh-so-European carbonated water.

The first time I visited Germany three years ago, when I was still charmed by the natives’ punctuality, our host prepared a little lunch for us to take with us on a day trip. She made little sandwiches with ham with thin slivers of asparagus already embedded in it, pretzels sliced in half and buttered, something with Nutella, and added a bag of gummy bears and a bottle of what looked like apple juice. When we sat down for our lunch the thing that excited me most was that the apple juice was carbonated. It was like having a bottle of Martinelli’s apple cider at a picnic.

What we drank was most likely a very typical, inexpensive German soda, a commercialized version of “Schorle,” or bubbly water added to juice or wine. Our English word for these drinks “spritzer” comes from the German verb “spritzen” meaning to splash. The Germans explain they find the watered down versions more refreshing, and, natürlich, less likely to make them drunk. Healthy German children actually find apple juice too sweet and ask for water to be added. One mother I know told me to add four parts water to one part chocolate soy milk for her son. Menus in Germany advertise wine by the bottle or the glass, and for a little less money “Weinschorle,” nothing more than diluted wine.

Another beverage experience on that first trip to Germany was an evening spent at the famous Munich Hofbräuhaus. Not sure I would be up for a whole half liter glass of beer, my hosts suggested a “Radler,” which is beer with lemon flavored soda. “Radler” means “cyclist” and may have been created to offer a refreshing but not so intoxicating drink for the bike riders in the mountains of southern Germany and Austria. The same drink is called and marketed as “Alsterwasser” in northern Germany and Hamburg. The Alster is a river in running through Schleswig-Holstein to meet the Elbe in Hamburg.

It might be impractical to water down expensive wines but on a sunny day at the park it makes sense to take a little of the warmth out of any alcoholic drink. And adding water to juice may just be another one of those European tricks to stay so thin. Don’t be a snob and try a little moderation the German way – just add water.