On Weird Drinks

My friend Kendall made me aware of a weird beverage, a greenish shandy. Shandies are known in southern Germany as Radler*, in northern Germany as Alsterwasser, i.e., water from the Alster River that forms a lake in Hamburg before it flows into the Elbe River.
*Appreciated by cyclists as an isotonic drink replenishing minerals lost in transpiration. These days, shandies containing up to 3% alcohol are being replaced more and more by alcohol-free wheat beers containing less sugar and alcohol than shandies.

The weird shandy in question is a mixture of beer and cucumber juice. It is made in Lübbenau, a town south of Berlin in the Spreewald. The region is famous for producing all sorts of cucumbers -- fresh, sour, or salty. Here, people speak Sorbian, a Slavic language. By mixing its beer with cucumber juice, the Kirchner brewery reduces the shandy's alcohol content to a mere 2.1%. Mind you, the creators did refrain from calling their mix Spreewasser.

When I saw Kendall's photo of the green bottle with a cucumber on a bicycle, it was a must-have, so I ordered a couple of bottles along with another beer mix featuring cucumber and rhubarb juice. To make a long story short: the Gurken Radler tastes like eingeschlafene Füße (old feet, literally feet that went to sleep). On the other hand, rhubarb juice adds a refined touch to the rose-colored Gurken Radler Rhabarber, and I like it. Prosit.

Next on my list of weird drinks is a non-alcoholic soft drink made from fir shoots. For generations, farmers in the Black Forest have harvested the young shoots. They cooked them in the water while adding sugar to the brew. The result is a syrup called Schösslihonig (fir shoot honey), usually eaten on bread.

A private brewery created a soft drink called Tannenliebe (love of fir trees) made from fir shoots. The mix is prepared with essence from fir shoots, water, sugar, Black Forest honey, and citric acid. Red Baron went downtown and bought two bottles of  Tannenliebe,  which were more expensive than beer. The taste? Disappointing since I had expected more flavor. On the other hand, the soft drink contains only a tiny amount of sugar, and the Abgang (finish or aftertaste) of fir shoots lasts for a couple of hours.

The last liquid I want to make you aware of is called BIRNOH, and, as its name suggests, it is based on Birnen (pears). Here, they mix selected pear brandy with freshly pressed pear juice, diluting the schnapps to a mere 18% alcohol. The mixture is filled into wooden barrels and matures into an aromatic, soft-drinking experience. You should enjoy BIRNOH on the rocks. That makes it tasty.

Prosit again.
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