The answer to the question “what is this?” would be really different given the origin of the reader answering. A french guy would probably refer to some symbol of our glorious revolution. American readers could refer to the Republican Party, Brits to the Union Jack? (actually I’m curious, could somebody answer those?)… now what would my german readers say? Most probably “Bionade”!
Let aside all the lovely beer one can find here, there are four German drinking wonders that need to be pointed out:
- First of all, if you ever ask for a “coca” like… anywhere… you’ll end up with a dumb staring waiter wondering whatever you just asked for. If you want to get a glass of this black, CO2 charged, sweet beverage, you’ll have to ask for a “coLa”… strange… oder?
- The second wonder is called “MezzoMix”. This is pretty much a mix between CocaCola and Orangina Fanta Orange (thanks Rolyat). You can order this pretty much anywhere… but only in Germany and Austria. I personally don’t really like that…
- Thirdly and that’s the strangest of all : think of a drink, add “schorle” to it and that makes another drink that you can definitely order wherever you are. The waiter will only pour you some of the first thing and add some carbonated water to it… that’s it. And beside making 100 points words for your next Scrabble game, I must admit it’s pretty good… Orangensaftschorle (“saft” = “juice”), Apfelsaftschorle or whaterver-saftschorle, you name it. But what really pisses me off is that they dare make some Weinschorle, you hear me? Kill some nice wine to do some fracking W-E-I-N-S-C-H-O-R-L-E >_< I don’t see beerschorle nowhere now do I? Keep your hands away from our Wine!!!
- Now you must start to wonder what the first paragraph was all for, and that would be my last wonder: the Bionade. You know that germans developed an almost national love for eco-bio-friendly-way of life… that would not be complete without the homebrew lemonade that could only be invented here around. The choice of flavors, with elderberry, lychee, herbs and ginger&orange, is definitely strange but believe me, this tastes wonderful and refreshing… I hope it sells at least as good as it tastes!
So, yep, there are still some things to tell you about Germany. I must admit that with all this delicious beer around and when you’ve got the nose right on it, you don’t notice some things anymore… thanks Rolyat for pointing this one out ;]
aah, the Apfelsaftschorle that’s a cool drink. This reminds me of my internship near Stuttgart more than five years ago…
Nice post Tim, this is always nice to see how things are different in a different country.
I hope to have the opportunity to test Bio(gre?)nade one day. I may quite enjoy it !
He he… Thanks to you to lighten the things. For Mezzo Mix, you should correct, the mix is more about Coca-Cola and Fanta Orange. If it was Orangina, you would have flesh inside
Mezzo Mix, cool and in summer is very much refreshing. I think it was our afternoon drink in the lab during summers.
So definitely, this winter I have to find and test that bionade.
For the *schorle, I cannot agree more. Refreshing and light drink. BTW your post remind me of a beer (hey, still beverage huh) made in Karlsruhe if I am not wrong. This drink could be, somehow, compare to our Panaché, but rather than to add “limonade”, they put grapefruit juice, and it tastes very well! I don’t remember the name yet. Maybe I’ll post it later.
You’re right, done, thanks
Hé hé (yes I am back at home now… On week-end already
). I found back the name of the beer with Grapefruit… Very simple and obvious as often in German, the beer’s name is: Hoepfner Grape. With 2.5% alcohol (well, as long as we have some, that’s fine – no I am not a heavy drinker 
). For more information: http://www.hoepfner.de/biere/grape.htm
Yeah, Karlsruhe FTW!
uh… Sorry… just missing…
Funny thing is that there was an article in the Spiegel at the end of August, so I can somehow answer your question if it is selling als good as it tastes.
Here are some figures:
Bionade held 6.3 % of the German lemonade market in June 2009. In order to compare it I can also name: fanta held 18,5%, Sprite 10% and discounter’s brands held 12,5%. The rest approx. 50% are splitted into small shares.
Due to a price raise of 30% the turnover dropped rapidly and the investors got into some financial problems and needed to sell 51% of the company. The investors got into problems itself and in Augst 51% of the Bionade GmbH should be sold for 70 mio. euros. Also the real value of the share is estimated to be only 20 mio euros.
Unfortunately I dont know if somebody bought the share. Most proberbly it would be a huge company like Coca Cola Company, Krombacher or Bitburger.
Okay, hope I could bring in some information also some of the minor details may be lost in translation.
Björn
Thanks for the numbers Björn! I still have half a case waiting on the balcony, just had one Ginger-Orange… yummy ^^
To be honest, I am not into that Bionade stuff.
Since I heard that they buy all the grains you normally need for beer and that therfore the beer is getting more expensive I am on a personal crusade.