A Radler or Radlermaβ

.

Ingredients:

  • Beer
  • clear Lemon flavored carbonated Soft Drink like 7up

Directions and History:

Any Lager or even light Beer will do. A better quality beer will give you a better taste!

Original Bavarian recipe calls for a 50/50 beer and soft drink mix.

Ratio can be changed to your taste preference.

Great long drink for the summertime.

 

Served in beer gardens in Bavaria for over 100 years.

Radler Maβ: Goes back to the bicycle clubs in the second half of the 19th Century, hence the first part of the name meaning bicycle rider.

A Maβ in Bavaria is a stein with the volume of 1 liter.

According to the German Historian Bauer: A Radler was enjoyed by the “bikers” once they reached their mid destination, a beer garden.  The “bikers” did not want to consume a soft drink, but if they would have had real beer, they would never have found their way home.

 

Elderflower Drink

In our search for the ingredients for a drink which we liked in Germany we finally found the Elder Flower Syrup at our local IKEA and they also had a recipe card of their own, which we tried and liked. It is an excellent summer drink.

Ingredients:

    •  1.5 oz    Vodka
    • 3/4 oz    Elder Flower Syrup
    •         1    Lime
    •    8 oz    Tonic water
    •               Ice

Directions:

Combine vodka, syrup and the juice of 1/2 a lime with ice in a highball glass and fill up with tonic water.
They recommend slicing the other half and adding it to the drink with one slice as decoration on the rim.
We only used 1/2 a lime and added the squeezed out part to the glass, the looks were probably not as great as adding more slices, but the drink was excellent.
Try adding a sprig of mint to it, you might like it.

The drink we had in Germany is called a Hugo.
The Syrup used is from the Elder Flowers, not the berries! If you want to make your own, see the recipe here.