Frankfurters shun beer for brew of ebbelwei

Press, 22 September 1987, Page 26

Frankfurters shun beer for brew of ebbelwei

By JEREMY SOLOMONS NZPA-Reuter Frankfurt Frankfurt has always prided itself on being different from other West German cities. Its drinking habits are no exception. While Munich’s citizens sing the praises of beer and Hamburg’s boast about their schnapps, Frankfurters merrily quaff large quantities of a seemingly innocuous pale yellow brew, called ebbelwei. Ebbelwei is the most common local name for an apple wine that has been produced in Frankfurt and the surrounding ’region since’ the early seventeenth century when war, climate changes and vine pests ruined the local grape wine industry. “This is our national drink. It’s a part of our heritage,” said Rainer Koch, director of Frankfurt’s historical museum, which has just opened its first ebbelwei exhibition. In 1866, when the Prussians were trying to gain supremacy over a unified Germany and abolish Frankfurt’s free city status, local politicians were busy squabbling about what sort of apples should be used in Frankfurt’s ebbelwei presses. The ebbelwei dispute was eventually resolved but not before Frankfurt had sacrificed its political independence. The city suffered even greater humiliation this century when its buildings were reduced to ashes and rubble during World War II and its bld to become the new federal West German capital was rejected in spite of a speedy reconstruction programme. Ebbelwei has remained an important part of Frankfurt’s everyday life throughout these periods of upheaval. In summer, the leafy cobblestone courtyards of the old Sachsenhausen quarter are packed with locals, sipping ice-cold ebbelwei and munching on traditional snacks, such as handkaese (a foul-smell-ing curd cheese) and onions, oil and vinegar, collectively known as “musik” due to the effect they can have on the consumer’s bowels. When winter sets in, people take shelter inside cosy inns where they warm up on hot ebbelwei, with cloves, cinnamon and sugir. The Ebbelwei Express — a brightly coloured streetcar — snakes round town at week-ends, offering tourists and locals the chance to drink Frankfurt’s most famous produce as they pass the sights of the rebuilt city centre. Ebbelwei is even sold in local supermarkets and exported to Germanspeaking communities in the United States and Australia. 5 “I still drink two to

three glasses a day at home. It’s invigorating and there’s not too much alcohol,” said Koch, of the historical museum. “Ebbelwei seems harmless enough,” said one local travel agent “But after you’ve had a few glasses, you know you’ve been drinking.” Most people drink the fully fermented "new light” or "old" ebbelwei, which has a milder and more bitter taste than the apple wines, ciders and brandies to be found in other parts of Germany, France or Britain. "Those other variations are just too sickly,” said Otto Rumeleit, chairman of the Retail Applewine Pressers Association of Frankfurt For those with a sweet tooth and a strong stomach, there is a more potent variety of ebbelwei, called “rauscher” or “intoxlcator,” which is available only in late October and early November when the recently pressed apple juice has completed about half the threemonth fermentation process. This is the time of the “autumn cure” when . people consume nothing but rauscher for a week to wash impurities from the body. “The rauscher is good for constipation and circulation but it can have awful consequences if you overdo it,” warned Koch. The museum’s exhibition contains lids of some ebbelwei glasses showing graphic details of the illeffects of overindulgence. Other lids depict scenes from the Garden of Eden with the lines underneath: “He who eats of the apple has sinned; he who drinks has done good.” Like the lids, most ebbelwei glasses have a distinctive design, which dates back to the days when people only used a knife and their bare hands to eat with. “Their hands used to get pretty greasy, so the glasses had to be ribbed so they wouldnt slip out of their grasp,” said a museum official, Roland Hoede. The advent of forks has not changed the way ebbelwei is drunk, just as the development of sophisticated production techniques has not really altered the way it is made. Apart from local apples, the only other permitted ingredient is "speierling,” the fruit of the mountain ash, which gives the mature ebbelwei its slightly bitter taste. Some innkeepers, such as Elfriede Wagner, of the popular Sachsenhausen bar, Wagners, mix ebbelwei with the apple brandy, Calvados, and dwarf apples to add a little variety. But she is quick to point out, “This is only a supplement, not a replacement Pure ebbelwei is still our main business."